Tag Outdoors Britain

Feeling like a Dogsbody for the weekend?

trailhobo_tina Leave a comment

Thinking of a great way to spend a November weekend? How about hours spent lying in a bivvy bag (very possibly in wind, rain, sleet or snow) on a slippy hillside, soggy gully or dark forest, keeping still and hidden until the jingling of bells provides imminent warning that you are likely to get a foot in the face from a wet dog eager to receive their prize for finding you! Or following someone who has offered to show you their puppies! Sounds a tad mad? Or like your best idea of fun? Well that is a regular weekend for the awesome ‘Dogsbodies’ who voluntarily enjoy nothing more than donning the camo’ salopettes (not compulsory!) and burrowing into the bracken for Search Dog training sessions.

The view from my Dogsbody high hide in the Brecon Beacons this weekend

I have just spent a fantastic weekend in the Brecon Beacons where the Mountain Rescue Search Dogs England team joined up with the Search and Rescue Dog Association Wales for an intense weekend of training with dogs and handlers being put through their paces from early learning in puppy class to the anxious assessment ‘exams’ for those ready to qualify as Operational Search Dog teams.

The new recruits soon grow into their roles

The weather generously provided practise conditions of almost every type often challenging for trainers, handlers and dogsbodies alike but the dogs, as always, take it completely in their stride and training is just all a brilliant game of winning their favourite toy.

The Dogsbodies, affectionately known as ‘bodies’ provide an essential part in training, giving the dog teams a target to search for as the dogs follow ‘air scent’ to learn how to find people lost, missing or injured in the outdoors. The handlers role is to coordinate the search, working with their dog to cover huge search areas efficiently, assessing wind conditions and terrain to cover the ground in a way that maximises the dogs opportunity to pick up a scent quickly. It’s very much a team effort and the bond and relationship between dog and handler is all important, ultimately defining their success as a team.

Always time for a spot of larking about – AKA all important team building!

But back to those ‘bodies’! Many volunteers are friends or partners of Mountain Rescue team members but others do it for ‘fun’ and the brilliant camaraderie amongst the teams make for a great social side too. On the quieter side, hiding in the hills and forests is also a great way to see wildlife and nature literally up close (and sometimes other, more bizarre goings on?!) in a way that you would not on a usual day in the hills. Wrapped up in a sleeping bag and cosy in your bivvy it’s a treat to just be still and soak in the scenery. At various intervals, of course, a dog will find you and then you get to play a few minutes of ‘catch’ , ‘fetch’ or ‘tug of war’ with a very excited dog. With dogs in earlier stages of training the body’s role can be much more interactive with considerable leaping up and down and running about required!

The dogs goes bonkers for their favourite toys at the ‘reward’ playtime

The teams can never have too many ‘bodies’ so if you are over 18 and this sounds like a way you might enjoy spending a soggy Saturday morning google your local Mountain Rescue Team or Lowland Rescue Team to find Search Dog teams near you who’ll give you the scoop (not literally – that is not part of the job description!). There are no specific skills required – you don’t even need a particular proclivity to camouflage wear! – just competence in the outdoors and it’s definitely important to love dogs as you may be inflicted with plenty of spaniel trampling or collie kisses. A sense of humour is a good strength! If you can only join in occasionally that’s fine too. You’ll be contributing to mountain safety and the wonderful tradition of #MountainRescue we should all be very proud of. Click here for more info about getting involved.

Training can be challenging and physical but all set in stunning locations

How often do you take the time to just lie down and watch the clouds go by?

Celebrating a successful weekend – Philippa and Search Dog George pass their assessments.

The dogs are all pets first and part of their handlers family. One of the wonderful things about being a dogsbody is seeing them progress from their first ‘sit-stay’ as adorable pups to qualification day as a confident, reliable team being placed on the Operational list ready for potentially life-saving call out duty. This weekend saw handler Philippa Lewis and Search Dog George of SARDA South Wales pass their assessment to Operational grade and handler Tony High of Teesdale and Weardale Search and Mountain Rescue Team and Search Dog Chief complete the journey to qualify to Operational grade. Chief and Tony are strong characters with an equally strong bond and are sure to be a very successful team as the real work now begins.

Congrats to Tony High and Search Dog Chief passing their assessments this weekend to become an Operational Search Dog team.

It’s a real privilege for me to join in with these training meets and it also reminds me why I am fundraising for these dedicated and committed individuals and their teams. Mountain Rescue members already give so much of their lives voluntarily to provide a safer environment in the outdoors for all of us and really do save lives in many environments and scenarios as well as providing regular and invaluable assistance to the emergency services.

Follow regular updates to my 1000 MOUNTAIN CHALLENGE here 👍🏃‍♀️⛰

There are currently close to 60 Search Dogs either on the callout list or coming through training and it costs £35,000 a year to train and keep all these volunteer dog teams in action.*

A £2 donation can keep a team in action today so please visit the

RunningtheSummits VirginMoneyGiving Page or the RunningtheSummits JustGiving Page

and become part of the family🐾🐶🐾

Thanks for reading and Happy Trails😊👣

Follow regular updates to my 1000 MOUNTAIN CHALLENGE here 👍🏃‍♀️⛰

Photos are my own or courtesy of MRSDA England and SARDA South Wales * figures from MRSDA England

251 Mountains – The “Wahoo” post

trailhobo_tina Leave a comment

You wait soooo long for a new post, then two come along together! So much has happened since I last wrote that I didn’t know where to start or what to write about to update this highly neglected blog site so I ended up with two posts – two sides of an adventure coin if you will – to fully celebrate passing the 250 mountain mark and 25% completion of the Running the Summits challenge. If too much wahoo’ing and air punching is not your bag check out 251 Mountains – The Zen post 🌱- it also has cake👍

Talking about bags there are now 251 in the proverbial summit bagging backpack. 749 mountains still seems like a very long way to go, and it is, but reaching another milestone is always a good time for a little pat on the back and check list run down –

  • Feet still attached? check✔
  • Knees still operational? check’ish✔
  • Shoes still in one piece – gaffa tape assisted bandaging allowed? check✔
  • Flapjack stores still brimming? check✔…..hang on, might need to double check….back in a minute…🍰

Before this challenge grew into 1000 Mountains (i.e. after too much wine and chocolate was consumed in one sitting resulting in a state of falsely percieved super hero omnipotence sparking the ‘here’s a great idea’ moment!) it was set to be a challenge to run the mountains of England to prove to the doubters that ‘yes we do have mountains in England’! Using the initial criteria, that meant 180 Mountains. Sounded like a great adventure indeed. But then, after the aforementioned loss of absolute sense moment, it got A LOT BIGGER. Changing the criteria to include those lumpy places classified as Hewitts, Nuttalls, Marilyns and Wainwrights also doubled the number in England. If you want to ‘get your anorak on’ about how all these classifications work and the wonderfully lovely art of hill-bagging there’s a whole other post about it HERE (don’t forget to come back though👍)

Still only part way through the English and Welsh Mountains there is still Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man’s single but lovely mountain yet to visit. Not to mention all the people who run, bike, hike, walk the dog, work and live in those majestic places yet to meet. I have already been lucky to meet so many extraordinary, kind and fascinating people simply because of my journey into the high places of Britain.

Physically so far, including my moment of madness ‘Virtual Everest’ by elevated treadmill and a brief ‘holiday’ to climb Mount Toubkal for New Years this challenge has had me climbing a vertical elevation gain of almost 70,000 metres , more than seven times the height of Everest, which makes it close to a miracle that my knees are even still attached to my body and haven’t fled in anger to a warmer, flatter place…….like Peterborough (if Peterborough was in southern Spain!) 

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Meeting inspiring everyday runners, adventurers, mountaineers and athletic legends

Tough at times, taking on this challenge has also given me a real “GET OUT OF BED“📣 🛌 alarm every morning for those times when otherwise I probably would not have got up in the cold, pre dawn to spend the day in the pouring rain and wind squelching through boggy miles of bog drenched bog!…….and that’s a GOOD thing😁, because those ‘type 2 fun’ days are some of the most memorable (though not always ‘wished to be repeated’) days.

Since I began this whole running adventure challenge shenanigans another world has opened up to me too which has resulted in me doing things I would never have imagined (aside from running, running up mountains and…..er, running!) . Meeting lots of adventurey folk like those above, being mesmerised by incredible stories of relative derring do, public speaking, writing for magazines, becoming nifty with crampons and ice axe ( there’s a whole dance routine video to prove it!), tasting 20 different flavours of flapjack, running with Joss Naylor for goodness sake! – all things I still can’t believe have happened. I can only share the notion to always be open to new opportunities….and GRAB THEM, because you never know where it might take you.

One of those ‘so glad I got out of bed early’ days!

I have also been lucky to meet and spend more time with some incredible Mountain Rescue Team members and witness Search Dogs trainees progress further through their training. They are now becoming so much more than adorably cute puppy faces as they advance through the various stages of training on their way to becoming qualified, registered Search Dogs fully skilled to work with their handlers to help the team save lives.

It’s always hard to find words to describe how amazing these teams are

Talking of which…. ( aha – you say- here we go) – although I have reached 25% of my mountain challenge target we are still a long way from reaching 25% of the fundraising target ( nearly 20% short as it happens – facepalm emoji!)

So if you have a few shiny coins rattling around in your winter coat lining/ down the back of the sofa/ car door cup holder/ you get the idea,

dig ’em out and sling’em int’ bucket RIGHT HERE – GO ON!, GIVE IT A CLICK😉 👍 You know you are epic!

It’s also really easy to donate by text too…. just text TOPS50 followed by an amount to 70070 . Thank You❤

Happy trails😊👣🐾

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Why run 1000 Mountains?

trailhobo_tina 7 Comments
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After my seemingly spontaneous decision to take my #RunningtheSummits Mountain Challenge to a whole new level it seems only fair to answer the big question……why???

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When I had the idea to take myself off on a little jog over the 180 Hewitt classified ‘Mountains’ of England that in itself seemed pretty daunting and to tell the truth I found the whole idea quite scary – I only had to climb a mere THREE summits on my #3PeAksRun, on all of which I experienced bad weather and some challenging conditions, and this was summer time on the most visited mountaintops in Britain with good paths and rarely a place to find yourself really alone. Of the hundreds of other mountains around the British Isles many are much more remote, difficult to reach, pathless and far less visited places.

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I do have a strong background of hill walking, a reasonable level of experience and have taken several courses in summer and winter hill skills and navigation, but I still hold a very cautious and wary respect for the mountains as places where I have often been tested. I relate it a little bit to the person who dives into the ocean proclaiming themselves a strong swimmer – it doesn’t matter how strong a swimmer you are, you will never be a match for nature!

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But at the same time, being in the mountains has brought me moments of my greatest joy, and certainly nowadays, running trails. As trail, mountain and fellrunners will surely attest, there is nothing quite like the feeling of freedom and agility of moving quickly along a technical trail skipping lightly from rock to rock. When the trail stars align the experience is that of a sublime dance with thd landscape. Then again, when they do not and you faceplant into a tree it can smart a bit!

So the decision to attempt to reach the tops of 1000 Mountains was not taken lightly. But I was feeling that the challenge needed to be something bigger, something to really test my mettle, but also a (dare I say) ‘journey’ to experience and learn so much more about our high places. I wanted the whole experience to last longer and have the opportunity to involve many more people. I had also set a ridiculously big fundraising target and felt it needed a challenge to match.

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I also seemed to be getting signs ( I know, sounds a bit sketchy) – but I kept coming across inspiring adventures of others, relating to their motives and experiences while my own growing obsession with mountains was quietly cultivating away. I was beginning to get strong emotions attached to random hills and was discovering I could recognise many peaks from photos of their ridgelines or surrounding landscapes as easily as old friends. The time was right to spend some serious time in the hills!

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I recently came across a trailer for the upcoming film ‘Edie’ starring Sheila Hancock which is the story of an elderly woman fulfilling a long held dream to climb a mountain in Scotland. The mountain in question is Suilven, an enigmatic peak which had held me quite entranced when I finally saw it for the first time last winter while spending some time in this remote corner of Scotland. I was equally as inspired by Sheila Hancock. Although the story behind Edie is a work of fiction the true story is that Sheila at 83 years of age did indeed climb that mountain proving the films tag line that it’s never too late.

assynt-suilven-autumn-glencanisp-lodgeThe majestic Suilven – photo credit James Barlow Photography

A final and far more straightforward reason to up my game to 1000 Mountains is simply…..because they are there? Not in a flippant sense but because we actually have so many incredible peaks in the British Isles and it seemed a shame to limit my adventure to so few of them. Climbing only those classified as Hewitts did seem to mean missing out on so many beautiful summits so the #RunningtheSummits 1000 will include peaks classified as Hewitts, Nuttalls and Scottish Munros…..all meeting the loosely accepted definition of a mountain by rising to a minimum of 2000 feet, and Marilyns, which include some lower hills but they do all have an elevation of at least 150 metres relative to the surrounding terrain making them really dominate their surroundings – true ‘mini mountains’. I also plan to include some people’s choice favourites that may not have made it onto any peak-bagging list! There have already been some fantastic hilly recommendations!

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Perhaps a bit of a cliché but #RunningtheSummits has all the potential of an adventure of a lifetime for me and I can’t wait to begin. But what I am most looking forward to is seeing some of you guys out there in the glorious British hills and meeting more of the incredible people who voluntarily give their time to help others as part of the Mountain Rescue Teams, Search Dog handlers and Fix the Fells – the real heroes of this story!

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Please join this mountainous adventure by following this blog, liking the facebook page and supporting the mountain charities by donating a little if you can.

 
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Happy trails – see you on a summit!  Tina and trail dog Patch😁👍👣🐾

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