WINCH TRAINING

Russ from Ardventures is no stranger to our pages, he pops up now and again, and last month he invited me to one of his winch refresher training courses with the Calder Valley Search and Rescue Team (CVSRT).

As Russ explained, despite the team using their winches on a regular basis, to keep their skills up to date, every three years they have a refresher course with the emphasis on safety and technique, not necessarily on difficulty.

An old Pennine Group trials quarry, not far from Sowerby in West Yorkshire, was the chosen venue, and on my arrival, the first group of the day were half way completing their final challeng - to winch a dead motor up a rather steep incline - and of course, the photos clearly don’t illustrate the steepness.

The team worked like a well oiled machine, and the ‘stricken’ vehicle slowly made its way to the top. Throughout the exercise Russ watched closely, asking questions making sure the team had an understanding of what they were doing, and more importantly, why.

Once the task was successfully completed, everyone made their way back the centre of the quarry for a brew and biscuits just in time for the second group to arrive, that meant that Russ could go through new pieces of kit that’s available, like soft shackles and FR rings with everyone present.

The first group then parked the Ranger in a precarious position for the next group to extricate. Okay, it could have been easily driven out, but that wasn’t the point, the point of this exercise was to get the Ranger back on level ground without using its engine, just its winch.

It was then an emergency call came through, an elderly woman had injured her ankle whilst on a walk and required assistance, so the first group leapt into action and headed off to assist in their Toyota Hilux.

Inspecting the ‘abandoned’ Ranger, the second team had a good look around for a strong enough anchor point and found a suitably large boulder that would do the trick.

Working just as efficiently as the first team, a long strap was retrieved and secured to the boulder, and it was down to a double line pull to extricate the Ranger, with ease. Again, Russ kept his eye on proceedings making sure that everyone, and the techniques were as safe as possible.

Their next challenge was to drive both the Ford Ranger and 110, ‘round to the other side of the quarry, and this time the Defender had to do the work and winch the Ranger up the hill.

Before tackling the job in hand, the team got together again and deliberated on the best technique and tools to use.

Just as the other team did, they opted to use a long strap attached to the Ranger, then utilised another double line pull to slowly and securely haul the Ranger up the incline.

Job done with boring efficiency!

About Calder Valley Search and Rescue Team

The Calder Valley Search and Rescue Team is a voluntary charity that provides an essential life-saving emergency service to the people of the Calder Valley and beyond, and is part of the Mid-Pennine Search & Rescue region supporting the statutory emergency services, working on behalf of West Yorkshire Police.

The Team attends an average of 65 callouts each year, and is entirely staffed by over 50 unpaid volunteers. It costs around £35,000 a year to keep the team operational, all of which is raised through donations - they receive no direct government funding.

You can help keep them active and saving lives by visiting the team’s donation page and give them a fiver, or more.

https://www.cvsrt.org.uk