Whilst we have only had 7 callouts in the year for those who were lost or injured on Dartmoor, one of those lasted for 11 hours. On this occasion the rescue team were called out at just before 8pm on a Saturday evening. It was a dark, wet and cold autumn evening and we were asked to help search for a woman who had become lost while hillwalking near Ryders Hill in the south of Dartmoor. She had been out since lunchtime and just after calling for help at around 7pm, her mobile phone battery failed. In the end this callout involved in excess of 60 individuals from 6 different organizations including our sister teams and the full-time emergency services. She was located just before 7am the following day, and apart from being wet and cold, in remarkable good spirits.

During the summer we had one of our more unusual callouts. A man who had been hillwalking on the south moor and called for assistance after his dog had been bitten by an adder and was now seriously unwell. He was concerned that it would take too long to carry his dog back to his car and then on to a vet. As we knew his location one of our team land rovers was dispatched and picked up the individual and his pet. We’re pleased to report that after spending overnight and most of the next day at their vet the dog fully recovered from it’s ordeal.

Our extreme weather response this year was a mobilization for Storm Ciaran in October. This time we weren’t deployed as flooding was not as severe as had been expected.

We continue to receive a similar proportion of calls from Devon and Cornwall Police to searching for vulnerable or despondent individuals.

Our team members have also ended up responding to incidents in more unlikely places. During a trip to a local climbing wall, a group of our volunteers were present when an individual had a serious fall. Within minutes the individual’s injuries had been assessed by our team members and it was suspected that he had sustained a fractured femur. As the climbing wall was close to our Rescue Centre first aid equipment and pain relief was quickly obtained. He was then packed ready for transportation to a local hospital where his injury was confirmed. He has subsequently made a full recovery.

At the beginning of 2023, and after several years of intensive training, two of our team members became fully qualified Mountain Rescue Search & Rescue Dog handlers. Their search dogs Binny and Amber now provide our team and the wider Mountain Rescue community with an incredible capability to find missing or injured individuals.

We continue to rely on our incredible volunteers to drop everything, at any time of the day or night, in all weathers to search for lost, injured or vulnerable individuals. This would not be possible were it not for the support they receive from incredibly understanding friends, families and employers.