On Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th April, Galloway MRT and Moffat MRT, were involved in a large scale exercise in the Galloway Hills around Loch Trool. Saturday's scenario involved a full scale search for 9 missing scouts aged between 10 and 15 years who were reported overdue after setting out to walk from Backhill of the Bush bothy to Glentrool village. Search teams totalling 45 personnel were deployed in the area of the Merrick and the Dungeon Hills with the assistance of a Royal Navy helicopter - Rescue 177 from HMS Gannet, whilst search dogs from SARDA (Southern Scotland) carried out searches in the most rugged areas.

The exercise also saw the first local deployment of the new 4x4 all terrain SARCOM mountain rescue Incident Support and Command vehicle which had travelled down from its base in Inverness. This new asset, funded by the Scottish Executive, utilises the very latest communication and satellite tracking facilities to ensure teams on the hill are in constant contact with their base. Search Managers and Planners are able to track the movements of the teams as they progress through their respective search areas using GPS plotting equipment. This new functionality is a facility provided with the newly issued team radios.

Ideal conditions on the hill, with good visibility, in an otherwise remote and inaccessible corner of Galloway, greatly assisted with the search process and all the missing scouts were found safe and well with the only injury being a sprained ankle.

On Sunday, both teams demonstrated their casualty recovery skills to a gathering of senior officers from the Scottish Ambulance Service and Dumfries and Galloway Fire and Rescue Service as well as Police Search Managers.

Moffat MRT recovered a head injured casualty from an inaccessibly steep ravine and Galloway MRT demonstrated the recovery of an injured mountain biker on a 'Mcinness' purpose built mountain rescue stretcher. The first recovery demonstrated the portability of their equipment for deployment, as well as how an efficient and organised team can safely and quickly progress across open hillside terrain. The second demonstration showed how a belay system is used to ensure the safety of the casualty and stretcher on steep ground.

Galloway MRT Team Leader David Tyson enthused - "The rescue exercise on Saturday was undertaken in ideal weather conditions and search teams were quickly deployed using the helicopter. We were fortunate to have the new MRT SARCOM vehicle with us during the exercise. The improvement to our communication network as well as the additional GPS tracking facility just scratched the surface of the benefits this vehicle offers"

In respect of Sunday's demonstration event David Tyson continued - "We hope that by inviting the senior officers of the Fire and Ambulance Services we have demonstrated effectively our capabilities in all conditions. We carry specialist equipment designed specifically for mountain terrain and all weather conditions. The weather on Sunday was fine and sunny, but the Galloway and Moffat Hills can be wild and remote in the middle of winter"