SARDA November 13, 2006
Posted by Mark Tennant in : Mountain Rescue, personal , add a comment
I had a busy and enjoyable weekend helping the great folks at SARDA - the Search and Rescue Dogs Association - with their monthly training. Basically it involves settling down on a hillside somewhere with a bivvy bag, a book and a flask of tea and simply waiting for a dog to find you! Needless to say, liquid refreshements were also enjoyed on the Friday and Saturday nights :-)
It was good to see so many new dogs doing well in the training. Corrie, the collie donated by children’s TV show Blue Peter, is turning into a great search dog. It’s great to think that some day these dogs will end up saving a life somewhere, often not even in mountainous terrain due to the increasing use of search dogs in urban and semi-rural settings.
Tweed Valley MRT Mountain Challenge June 15, 2006
Posted by Mark Tennant in : Dunbar Grammar, Mountain Rescue , add a comment
I meant to blog this the day after it all happened, but as per the last post, just been too busy!
Every year,
Tweed Valley MRT (
our nice neighbours) hold a 24 hour Mountain Challenge, and boy is it challenging: 40 miles, 10,000ft ascent. Ouch. Anyway, I’ve completed it for the last two years (21 hours 2005, 18 hours 2006 … 2007?). What really impressed me however were theat no less than five former pupils of DGS took part this year: Andrew Maddox, Steven Low, Ben Mincher, Ian Thompson and David Bower.
The five pupils have no doubt raised hundreds of pounds for a very good cause, and are a credit to Dunbar Grammar - well done lads. Only two managed to finish the challenge, but all five done very well, in fact they all got further than even I honestly expected.
My personal highlight of the challenge was meeting up with a nice fellow from Duns, who would become part of the challenge folklore. Half way round, he lost his ankles. they just disolved, vanished, disappeared in a large pool of blood. No joke, they were the worst I’d ever seen since I managed to hospitalise myself breaking in a new pair of boots by trekking across two munros! (note to self - bad idea). I had to patch them up on the hill - only half way round remember - using the only first aid kit I had - two wound dressings and a flask of 12 year old Glenfiddich. Amazingly, he finished the walk! Certainly a braver man than me!
Anyway, I’ll leave you with a couple of photos from the walk: The ankle-less man, and four of our former pupils at the finish line, proping themselves up against the first thing to hand!!
Winter Skills February 28, 2006
Posted by Mark Tennant in : Mountain Rescue , add a commentWell, things are slowly getting back to normal after the winter skills in the
Cairngorms . On Saturday, we had a fantastic opportunity to go out with members of the
Scottish Avalanche Information Service and learn how they predict and forecast avalanches. This was followed by tuition in snow anchor usage. Sunday saw the team carry out a mock rescue in Coire an t-Sneachda which involved lowering a stretcher from below the Fiacail Butress. Coincidentally,
Cairngorm MRT would be involved in a real rescue only 24 hours later that would take a dramatic turn when the RAF helicopter they were using was forced to land in the coire as the rotors iced up!
Also pleasing to see two colleagues from the school taking part in a Winter Skills course that weekend too, run by East Lothian Outdoor Education.
Interactive teaching and learning February 23, 2006
Posted by Mark Tennant in : Dunbar Grammar, Mountain Rescue, personal , add a commentWell, a busy day today! Between trying to mark Higher prelims, second year tests, third year homework and pack for the weekend (rescue team winter skills weekend in Aviemore!), I have finally started writing the material for an internal CPD session on interactive teaching and learning I am running for two evenings, starting this Tuesday.
The first session will focus on the use of some fine software called
Hot Potatoes - an easy way to build online quizzes, crosswords and match-the-pairs exercises. The software is fairly easy to use (I think!) and requires no knowledge of web design or programming to use. Best of all, it’s free for non-profit use!
The second session is still being planned, and to some extent will depend on the wishes of participants, but topics will include using web design software to design index pages for interactive quizzes and an introduction to other free or commercial software that can be used to enhance learning. Free software CDs containing full versions of free software, and trial versions of some commercial software will also be on offer.
Anyway, I’m off to play in the snow. By curious coincidence, the East Lothian Outdoor Ed folk are also in Aviemore for their winter skills session. If anyone’s looking for me, I’ll be in the Old Bridge Inn!
Just for fun February 21, 2006
Posted by Mark Tennant in : Mountain Rescue , add a commentIf you’ve ever wondered what being in a Mountain Rescue Team is like, play the game…