UK Mountain First Aid Course

So there I was in the pitch black forest struggling  to hang onto the screaming Indian with one hand whilst with the other trying to stem the blood flowing from around the arrow sticking out of her back. Nearby an unconscious and bloody body lay awkwardly slumped over an earth bank, a cowboy perhaps? Two more casualties were hidden somewhere in the darkness, the flashing beams of head torches and hurried shouts of rescuers told of how complex a situation this was. I like to think that I’ll never have the misfortune to come across anything quite like this for real but having been put through a number of these challenging scenarios over the last couple of days has hugely increased my confidence in being able to cope with the unexpected. In the UK all those who lead people professionally in the mountains are required to maintain their competency in First Aid by under taking formal training and assessment every few years. For a while now I’ve gone to CRT Medical based in Mid-Wales to achieve this and I can’t praise the quality of their UK Mountain First Aid Course enough. There are so many great aspects to it. Firstly the excellent instruction, which is delivered by Russ the hugely knowledgeable Chief Instructor with the perfect balance of science, real world practicalities and humour.  Then there’s the level of enthusiasm and imagination that they apply to the numerous practical sessions. As well as the afore mentioned Indian, the guys had set up a full paraglide wing strung up in the trees and as a finale they have a ‘crash’ car which after mowing down a group of walkers ends up crashed in a ditch. All that said though the best thing about the two days staying in the centre they use near Staylittle was the food. Karen seems to run around tirelessly managing all of the behind the scenes activity no small part of which is the cooking. Three cooked meals a day with at least two cake breaks between meals, I’ll be well on my way to first aid certificate renewal before I’m hungry again.