A small anecdote - our training in action
After last weekends GPS Training course we received this very interesting response to our e-mail requesting feedback -
There is a small anecdote which you can pass on to the GPS instructor Pete.
...I did the Mungrisdale course on Saturday and on Monday I was using the Oregon 600 in anger on a modest hill circuit above Little Loch Broom (Beinn Ghonhlach is directly across the loch from An Teallach). I downloaded a 'four boot' route from the Walkhighlands website into my GPS.
Having completed 80% of the walk, on the way down one of our party of six slipped and broke her ankle. The weather was poor and after carrying/sliding her down to the lochside path on a makeshift stretcher (6 walking poles inside a bivvy bag) we realised we wouldn't manage to carry her the remaining 2 miles out to our cars. By then it was 7pm, gettting dark and the weather was deteriorating - so we had to call mountain rescue. The GPS gave us and the rescue helicopter a pinpoint reference (the Waypoint is now stored in my GPS as 'Victoria falls' - that's the patent's name!).
The helicopter arrived from Stornoway within 90 mins and winched her up over the loch and away to Inverness hospital - she had two ankle fractures and was only discharged from hospital yesterday after a couple of hours of surgery. The rest of us walked out. The helicopter team remarked on the helpful accuracy of the grid reference we gave them - they had to use night-vision goggles and the cloud level was only a couple of hundred feet with nowhere to land. We also gave them 1:50k paper map reference too.
As I left Mungrisdale I joked to Pete that if I was reported as being lost on the mountains this week he shouldn't feel guilty because I only attended the one day course....instead he should feel pleased that Saturday's training came to good use 48 hours later!
There is a small anecdote which you can pass on to the GPS instructor Pete.
...I did the Mungrisdale course on Saturday and on Monday I was using the Oregon 600 in anger on a modest hill circuit above Little Loch Broom (Beinn Ghonhlach is directly across the loch from An Teallach). I downloaded a 'four boot' route from the Walkhighlands website into my GPS.
Having completed 80% of the walk, on the way down one of our party of six slipped and broke her ankle. The weather was poor and after carrying/sliding her down to the lochside path on a makeshift stretcher (6 walking poles inside a bivvy bag) we realised we wouldn't manage to carry her the remaining 2 miles out to our cars. By then it was 7pm, gettting dark and the weather was deteriorating - so we had to call mountain rescue. The GPS gave us and the rescue helicopter a pinpoint reference (the Waypoint is now stored in my GPS as 'Victoria falls' - that's the patent's name!).
The helicopter arrived from Stornoway within 90 mins and winched her up over the loch and away to Inverness hospital - she had two ankle fractures and was only discharged from hospital yesterday after a couple of hours of surgery. The rest of us walked out. The helicopter team remarked on the helpful accuracy of the grid reference we gave them - they had to use night-vision goggles and the cloud level was only a couple of hundred feet with nowhere to land. We also gave them 1:50k paper map reference too.
As I left Mungrisdale I joked to Pete that if I was reported as being lost on the mountains this week he shouldn't feel guilty because I only attended the one day course....instead he should feel pleased that Saturday's training came to good use 48 hours later!