Roll Up, Roll Up...

I've not taken part in much charity stuff recently, I put money in the the little boxes I pass but nothing on a bigger scale. So I have come up with an idea and have been formulating it behind the scenes, you may have seen hints of it on Twitter or you may have received an email from me as part of the planning process.

So here's the plan - 

A Prize Draw in aid of Scottish Mountain Rescue and Mountain Rescue England and Wales, two worthy charities which support all of us outdoor goers when we need them. They are on call 24/7 on a voluntarily and they help hundreds of people on a yearly basis. They recently assisted a friend of mine that is a very experienced mountaineer, so it's not just the jeans and t-shirt brigade that benefit from their skills.

This image was kindly donated by @csbradders

For the measly sum of £10 you will be entered into a Prize Draw that could give you the chance to receive a load of outdoor gear and paraphernalia, think Gadget Show just less techy. In fact there will be two separate draws. One male and one female, this is because I have a couple of things that are gender specific. How the non specific stuff will be split up will develop over the course of the month. 

I have a small pot of things at the moment but there are companies and individuals that have expressed an interest in donating. As these are confirmed I will post them.

Nordiclife has donated a male and female mesh base layer. With winter on it's way these will be invaluable.

Vertebrate Publishing has donated two books: Echoes by Nick Bullock and Hanging On by Martin Boysen. Two award nominated books well worth a read.

Ian Macloed Distillers have donated a bottle of Isle of Skye 8yo Blended Scotch Whiskey. Isle of Skye Whiskey sponsors the Scottish Mountain Rescue, a wee dram to keep them warm when they are out on on a cold Scottish  night. (Disclaimer: they probably aren't as they are professionals)

The amazing photographer that is Stewart Smith has promised one of his beautiful prints of your choosing in A3, framed and signed. The print will be one of only fifty that will be put to high quality photo paper. Below is an example of the ability of Mr Smith and an image of this caliber could be hung pride of place on your wall.

The man that is Chris Townsend has been in touch and has donated four of his very own, both written and owned, books. I may also chance my arm and ask him to sign them. The books are:

• The Great Backpacking Adventure
• High Summer: Backpacking the Canadian Rockies
• Crossing Arizona: A Solo Hike Through The Sky Islands and Deserts of the Arizona Trail
• Grizzly Bears and Razor Clams: Walking America's Pacific Northwest Trail

As a look forward Mr Townsend is putting together a list of gear he has tested personally, surely it is worth more tested by him than it is off the shelf?

The truly British outdoor company True Mountain have included two water bottles and from their sister company two Suprabeam V5 head torches.

From my own gear cupboard I have put in an LED Lenser head torch. The H7.2. From the site it has "a new upgraded CREE LED light chip, new multi-function Dynamic ‘wheel’ Switch and the addition of Smart Light Technology to work alongside the world renowned patented Advanced Focus System optics are just a few highlights of the many innovations integrated into this stunning Head Lamp."

Additional items that have been contributed to the cause(05/11/14) -

The Munro Moonwalker, Alan Rowan, has donated his 5 star rated book Moonwalker: Adventures of a Midnight Mountaineer, tackling Munro's in the middle of the night.

The great guys at Scottish Mountain Rescue had a couple of LEDLenser torches ready to contribute for the winter nights coming. The H14.2 headtorch and the P14.2 torch. (You can never have enough torches:D)

Outdoor Pursuits Scotland have put up this fantastic opportunity for a 1 hour white water rafting experience for four people at Pinkston Watersports Centre in Glasgow. I know it might be a bit far for some but you can come stay at my house, no problem!

One more for the pot (11/11/14)...

The passionate outdoor sports company Vaude (www.vaude.com) has contributed this fantastic Cheyenne 500 down sleeping bag. The mummy cut has an 80/20 quality down fill and is ecologically manufactured in line with the bluesign standard.

Image taken from Vaude website

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As I said there has been other people expressing interest in the prize draw so I hope this bounty will grow through the month. It will be divided closer to the time of the draw into two bundles. And if there is enough stuff that comes in I can try and split it again giving more chances to win.

You can enter as many times as you like increasing your chances of winning but more importantly donating more money to the Mountain Rescue teams.(eg £30 = 3 entries in the draw)

So how we going to do the donating. This has probably been the most annoying. It was my hope to have one online charity donation site that would split it between the charities, however, it hasn't worked out like that. The way I have sorted it is to have a separate page for the Scottish and English & Welsh teams. So it might instill a bit of competition and raise more money, d'ya think? 

Click on the appropriate link below the logo and lets raise some money for these committed teams - 

Donate to Scottish Mountain Rescue

Donate to Mountain Rescue England & Wales

I've set the targets quite high and I hope they are manageable. 

The draw will take place on the 7th December 2014. This is to let the people who have kindly donated and myself get the winners stuff to them before Christmas (yes I am thinking that far ahead). It will be done on a proper "name out the hat" basis and will be completely transparent. Please put enough details in your donation so I can get back in touch with you if you are lucky enough to win.

If anyone knows someone who can help or you can help yourself to expand the haul then please get in touch with me. Leave a comment or through social media.

I hope everyone can get involved and good luck!

Disclaimer: There will be people I know personally that will enter this draw and they will be treated equally to everyone else that donates.

Search And No Need For Rescue

Today I went to stretch my legs up in Arrochar. I went up to Beinn Narnain, more on that in a later post. The twist to what would have been a fairly normal hike to a regular haunt came on the route down. 

The path which leads off both the Cobbler and Narnain has some great views and as I walked down it today a search and rescue helicopter came in to view. I started to take the obligatory photos.

 It hovered over the Cobbler then moved over to Narnain. It hovered on the opposite side of the feature then I noticed on the near side I noticed orange smoke starting to to plume. As the smoke dispersed the helicopter moved on to the near side of where I watched and hovered again. I expected to to see a winch drop but nothing, it then follow off in to the distance in the direction of Beinn Ime and vanished. The picture below is a poor one taken from a zoomed in phone but it shows the helicopter moving towards the smoke.

 At this point I was convinced they had missed a distress signal, I know this would be difficult but I wasn't happy with leaving without confirming no one was left on the mountain. I called the emergency services with a very minimal signal, I explained what I had seen and my concerns. I asked if there was a call out or if they were training but the lady couldn't confirm either. She said she would call me if they needed more information. I waited for 10 minutes for a call, with no call I tried calling back but no signal I couldn't even get a 999 call out. I decided to head off piste direct to the location of the smoke. I had to be sure no one was injured on the hill. 

It took me over an hour to get in to the crag where I headed, the ground on route wasn't perfect. As I got closer I called out to see if there was anyone injured but there was no response. I got to a stage where I couldn't get gain any more height on the route I had taken. There was no sign of anyone and I hadn't found any trace of the orange smoke. I have had experience with it in the past and it leaves a fairly significant scar on the ground when it plumes. I made the decision to go back down to try and get a signal, as I couldn't ascend safely due to terrain and failing light. Frustrated, I made my way back down to intersect with the main path as far down as I could. 

All the way down I questioned whether I had made the right decision to go down: was I leaving someone on the hill in the cold injured and unconscious? Eventually, further down the footpath I got a signal 2 hours after my first call to the emergency services. After giving my details and explaining the situation, again, once I had been put on hold for a few minutes the female operator was able to tell me it was a training exercise and the smoke was used for wind direction. She said "I don't know if that will make you feel better or worse?" I explained that it made me feel better as now I know there is no one left hurt on the hill. 

You might read this and think "what an idiot!" "they would have seen an injured person, and they wouldn't have flown off!" Normally I'd agree but I had doubt, the switchboard weren't able to confirm that it was training or if it was a live call. I hadn't had a message from them to confirm either way since, I know they didn't know I would head up there but I couldn't just leave without knowing. Maybe I did go a bit far with it but without being told otherwise I'd do the same again. My main issue is, why weren't the switchboard aware of the status of the SAR helicopter? Who should we contact if we do need to know what is happening? I don't want to waste any of the emergency services time but what if I look the other way and it has grave repercussions? 

Thankfully it didn't and, as far as I'm aware, everyone's home safe and sound. It made an interesting end to a nice day out.