An Evening at Old Harry

Three teams converged at Old Harry last night for one of the biggest training exercises we have done for a long time. 

We've not trained at Old Harry this year, so it was a chance to refresh our rope rescue techniques on some unfamiliar cliffs and to get used to working with different people.  Coastguard procedures, equipment and training are standard throughout the service and so in theory CROs (coastguard rescue officers) from one team ought to be able to drop seamlessly into another and understand the operation as though they were one of the main team.  And so it was proved, as we worked firstly with Kimmeridge in lowering one of their technicians over the cliff and then with St Albans who had set up their own rope rescue equipment adjacent to ours, giving the unusual sight for the cliff tech of another cliff tech halfway down the cliff alongside him.  Credit to all the teams for the way they were able to mix and match and work so efficiently.



Brian going over the edge. Nick and Steve acting as edge safety officers assist him



The extra long session allowed us to achieve a number of positives: We got cliff tech Brian over the cliff for a refresher and Nick too as he works towards his technician's ticket.   Kerry and Terry worked the lines at the cliff top as they work towards being signed off 'Operators' and Gareth had an extended spell as OIC, allocating roles and ensuring a smooth operation.  We also took a spare coastguard over the cliff with us on one of the descents - in real life, this second (untrained) person might be a paramedic or police negotiator who we'd take down and so it is always a good skill to practice.




 St Albans accompanied descent adjacent to us



Later on we were joined by an ITV film crew and our 'accompanied descent' skills were put to good use when we lowered the programme host on one set of equipment and the cameraman on the other.  With the distraction of a film crew and their interviews and other requirements, there's always the risk of losing concentration, but fair play to Ian and Gareth who ran a tight ship all night and kept the team focussed on the job in hand.



Lots of coastguards. 



No doubt there'll be more on the filming another time, either here or on our Facebook page, - search for Swanage Coastguard.