Four go to Norway Colin MacDougall
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SCOTTISH MOUNTAIN RESCUE NOV. 2013
t the end of February a selection of Team Leaders from Scottish Mountain Rescue attended the ‘ Leadership in difficult situations Course’ based at Finse, Norway.
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SELECTION - MRCofS Chair, Jonathan Hart assured us we were handpicked for the task but we later found out the selection process ran to an application and offer to write a report on return!!. By sheer accident this process resulted in a good cross section of experience and working environments from across Scotland. With Damon Powell (Oban),Kev Mitchell (Ochils), Mark Leyland (Arrochar) and myself representing the Tayside Police unit. As Mark and I are on the MRCofS Search Management group, we intended to compare what we provided in Scotland with the Norwegian training, and if appropriate take on-board any good ideas. As it turned
out the learning process was far more wide-ranging than expected, covering Leadership, incident management (including avalanche), communications and use of GPS for personal safety and incident management. Our hosts were the Norwegian Red Cross who purposefully chose the venue due to its
guaranteed harsh weather !!! (something that wasn’t mentioned in the selection process). Finse is at the North of the Hardangervidda and is only accessible by train, ski or snow-mobile during winter. The hut used is part of the national DNS network and was specifically opened for the course to
accommodate the 25 students, trainers and support staff plus the Scottish and Lebanese contingent. The Norwegian Red Cross is heavily involved in Lebanon and is presently supporting the creation of an organised rescue structure. In order to progress this, a member of the Lebanese Red Cross attended at Finse to observe and participate along with us Scots. HOW IT WORKS - A wee introduction is needed at this point in relation to how mountain rescue is structured in Norway. Very much like Scotland, the response is a multi-agency collaboration with the main organisations being the Police and Red-cross. There is an overarching coordinating organisation – ‘Joint Rescue Coordination Centre’ (JRCC) which runs two control centres in the North and South. The JRCC undertakes the functions of the Police/ ARCC and MCA control centres and has the authority to involve other assets such as commercial helicopters. It incorporates both land based