Diploma of Mountain Medicine

On Thursday the 16th May Llanberis MRT (LLMRT) hosted the Mountain Rescue module of the Diploma of Mountain Medicine (DiMM) at their Nant Peris base. This is the 6th year that LLMRT have being involved with delivering this module which not only provides an excellent opportunity for the team to demonstrate mountain rescue teams capabilities it also helps team members keep abreast of developments of both equipment and methods of treatment. In total we had 23 candidates (although I think for some reason they call them diplomats – however don’t ask me why) along with Debbie and Helen - both members of the faculty helping to deliver the week long Theory two course.



After an introduction from LLMRT member Elfyn Jones about the team and how the call out system works it was straight in to a round robin with 3 sessions on equipment, splinting and the contents of the First Aid bags. Following this Dr Ben Hall delivered an excellent session on working with helicopters over a working lunch then it was straight out to the crag above the helicopter landing zone. After a quick demo of the system two or three lowers were accomplished with a number of the candidates keen to get stuck in and have a go.

The RAF Rescue arrived with a big noisy, smelly helli and the rest of the afternoon virtually disappeared with a new winchman being assessed by Ben in front of 25 other doctors! Finally after a quick ‘brew’ back at base we just had time for team member and SARDA Chairperson Helen to give a brief chat on search dogs followed by an excellent demonstration from her dog Clunie and then it was back the Vaynol Arms where 3 of us joined the docs for curry and chips. Overall an excellent day which I think went smoothly although inevitably we did have a little ‘time creep’ as the day progressed. Judging by the chatter in the pub later on everyone appeared to have thoroughly enjoyed the day and got a lot from it so a big thanks to LLMRT members Phil Benbow, Pete Robertson, Elfyn Jones, Katherine Wills, Helen Howe and of course not forgetting Dr Ben Hall.

Mal Creasey

Development Officer