From the Lochaber MRT facebook page:
Good morning everyone.
We have been inundated with questions surrounding the arrest of 2 hill walkers near Crianlarich recently. We have no knowledge of the incident other that the subsequent press coverage and the comments on various social media platforms. We do not want to comment on the specifics or the outcome by Police Scotland. One element of the social media comments which is particularly worrying is to see is that people are threatening to withdraw their financial support of Mountain Rescue teams because of certain posts in response to the incident.
All mountain rescue teams depend on the generosity of the public and our community to help support us. It would be a pity if you are a climber, hill walker, mountain biker or just a casual recreational user of our countryside and the voluntary rescue service was not able to respond if our services were needed. If you have an issue with an organisation, then please continue to support the individual teams where the money donated will go direct to providing mountain rescue services.
We are all frustrated by the restrictions imposed on us by Covid-19 and we all want to be able to get back to our mountains and countryside as soon as possible. It is important to remember that, up until now, most of our rural communities have had minimal exposure to Covid-19 and if mountain rescuers are asking people to follow guidelines then it is to protect the communities we live in rather than the individual volunteer rescuers. Thankfully Lochaber has had zero call-outs since the lockdown began and that is a credit to everyone for showing remarkable restraint.
We would also like to clarify something, which is perhaps not fully understood, even by some of our representative bodies, which is that four teams, Cairngorm MRT, Glencoe MR, Lochaber MRT and Tayside MRT, who carry out the majority of mountain rescues in Scotland, are not members of Scottish Mountain Rescue, but a wholly independent association called iSMR (Independent Scottish Mountain Rescue).
Stay patient.
We have been inundated with questions surrounding the arrest of 2 hill walkers near Crianlarich recently. We have no knowledge of the incident other that the subsequent press coverage and the comments on various social media platforms. We do not want to comment on the specifics or the outcome by Police Scotland. One element of the social media comments which is particularly worrying is to see is that people are threatening to withdraw their financial support of Mountain Rescue teams because of certain posts in response to the incident.
All mountain rescue teams depend on the generosity of the public and our community to help support us. It would be a pity if you are a climber, hill walker, mountain biker or just a casual recreational user of our countryside and the voluntary rescue service was not able to respond if our services were needed. If you have an issue with an organisation, then please continue to support the individual teams where the money donated will go direct to providing mountain rescue services.
We are all frustrated by the restrictions imposed on us by Covid-19 and we all want to be able to get back to our mountains and countryside as soon as possible. It is important to remember that, up until now, most of our rural communities have had minimal exposure to Covid-19 and if mountain rescuers are asking people to follow guidelines then it is to protect the communities we live in rather than the individual volunteer rescuers. Thankfully Lochaber has had zero call-outs since the lockdown began and that is a credit to everyone for showing remarkable restraint.
We would also like to clarify something, which is perhaps not fully understood, even by some of our representative bodies, which is that four teams, Cairngorm MRT, Glencoe MR, Lochaber MRT and Tayside MRT, who carry out the majority of mountain rescues in Scotland, are not members of Scottish Mountain Rescue, but a wholly independent association called iSMR (Independent Scottish Mountain Rescue).
Stay patient.
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