Latest Incident: 10/12/24 The Team's Canoe section were deployed to search the river Tees as part of the continued search for the missing female from Darlington. Three paddlers... More details
2nd January 2013 BUSY 2013 FOR RESCUE TEAM
2013 has another busy year for Teesdale & Weardale Search & Mountain Rescue Team. The Team of 40 mountain rescue volunteers has a base in Barnard Castle but covers the whole of County Durham. Last year they attended 45 callouts an increase of 25% from 2012 and a big increase on the total of 9 callouts in 1993.
Deputy Team Leader Steve Owers said "Most people think we only attend incidents on the fells looking for lost walkers but this is far from the truth. Last year we rescued drivers stuck in snow, assisted district nurses in Teesdale to get to remote farms again in the snow, assisted the North East Ambulance Service, carried out a number of searchers for missing persons on the rivers Tees and Wear and helped out our colleges in Northumberland, Cleveland and North Yorkshire on a number of searchers. 15 of our callouts were to assist the Police to search for vulnerable adults and children missing from home in all parts of the County. Probably our most unusual callout was in January in Upper Teesdale to search for a missing kite skier. A skier being towed along by a kite became separated from his party when the mist came down. Because of the large distances that can be covered when kite skiing we had a large search area in particularity challenging conditions. Fortunately the skier came across a remote farm near Alston and was able to telephone his friends to say he was safe."
"Like all Mountain Rescue Teams we rely heavily on donations from the public for our running costs. We would like to thank the people of County Durham for their generous support."
Steve Owers
Press Officer
07876 132030
02/01/14
1200hrs
Photo - Team members searching banks of River Wear for missing student.
Notes For Editor Teesdale
& Weardale Search & Mountain Rescue Team are affiliated to the "Mountain
Rescue - England and Wales". We provide a Search and Rescue service throughout
County Durham and beyond primarily for the Police but also for the other emergency
services. All Team members are volunteers and we rely on monies raised by ourselves
as a registered charity to run the Team. Further details regarding our latest
callouts and Team information can be found on our website www.twsmrt.org.uk
