Into The Storm | A Brief History of British Mountain Rescue
April 16, 2026It’s an unsettling thought: you’re out in the mountains, you slip and fall, and suddenly you’re stuck, with the weather closing in around you. You have no way to contact anyone, and a rescue could be days away. This was the nightmare scenario that countless climbers and hillwalkers faced and endured before the dawn of organised Mountain Rescue Teams. The following is a brief history of – and tribute to – this invaluable volunteer service, who have helped so many without judgement, and asked for so little in return.
Born from conflict
Scotland is home to the UK's biggest and most remote mountain ranges. They can pose many risks for those who venture into them – and during the Second World War, that included airmen of the Royal Air Force and other allied air forces. Numerous aircraft were lost in mountainous terrain – usually due to crashes caused by poor navigation or bad weather. As a result, four mountain rescue teams were initially formed in Scotland in 1943-44: RAF Wick, RAF Kinloss, RAF Montrose, and RAF Wigtown. This was followed in 1960 by Britain's first police-led MRT, from Police Scotland's Grampian force – following the deaths of five walkers on Jock's Road between Glen Doll and Braemar the previous year.
It would turn out to be a transformative decade for mountain rescue, with teams established across the country after the formation of the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland in 1965. In the same year, Hamish MacInnes – the legendary mountain safety and rescue pioneer – founded SARDA: the Search and Rescue Dog Association. It was an idea that snowballed in his mind after witnessing an avalanche dog training course in Switzerland during the early 1960s.
His engineering background and deep sense of the mountains produced pivotal moments of innovation, including the lightweight and foldable MacInnes Stretcher, first developed in the early 1960s, and the first all-metal ice axe designed in 1970. The stretcher revolutionised mountain rescue. Now in its eighth iteration, it is still coming to the aid of climbers all around the world.
Growing momentum
A further nine Scottish MRTs would be created in the 1970s, along with two additional Police Scotland teams. In 1988, the nation's first avalanche forecasting service was introduced. Before then, rescue teams had to rely on local knowledge for real-time insights into the conditions. Though you might not associate the UK with avalanches, between 1980 and 1990 there were 21 fatalities caused by avalanches across Scotland.
The 1990s brought a surge in the popularity of mountaineering, and inevitably, an influx of incidents and call-outs. There was also more media interest in the work of Mountain Rescue, and a growing realisation of the need to financially support the vital work. Charitable donations from the non-profit organisation, St John Scotland funded Aberdeen's rescue base at Westhill in 1997; then provided grants to fund vehicles for the Assynt and Arrochar MRTs the following year. In 2003 the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland received an initial annual grant of £300,000 from the Scottish Government to be distributed amongst the teams nationwide.
The additional funding came at a time when the MRT network was still growing. Close ties between Police Scotland and what is now Scottish Mountain Rescue (SMR) continued, and in 2001 Strathclyde Police appealed to the Oban Mountaineering Club about setting up a team to cover Argyllshire, where coverage was insufficient. Oban Mountain Rescue was set up the following year, followed by the Hebrides MRT in 2010. In 2014 Scottish Mountain Rescue became a registered charity.
A financial lifeline
Donations and grants are a lifeline for this volunteer-run unpaid service, and it gives the teams the resources and training they need to tackle an increasing number of call-outs in arguably more unpredictable conditions, thanks to climate change. Conditions that catch out more and more inexperienced and ill-prepared folk as Munro-bagging and hillwalking has morphed from being a niche pastime to an interest to be enjoyed by the masses.
So, when something like the "Beast from the East" takes hold, as it did during February 2018, the teams are better prepared than ever before. The intense storm led to rare red warnings issued for snow and hurricane-force winds on the summits. A total of 34 call-outs were actioned by the Northumberland MRT, Borders Search and Rescue Unit, Moffat MRT, Ochils MRT and the Tweed Valley MRT. 264 people felt the reassuring presence of Mountain Rescue, with the teams having spent over 2,000 hours out on the slopes in challenging conditions. In July 2018 the Search and Rescue Aerial Association for Scotland (SARAA) was established to provide drone support for rescues and missing person searches.
Today, Scottish Mountain Rescue (SMR) represents 26 Mountain Rescue Teams with over 850 committed and highly trained volunteers on hand, ready to respond in a moment to assist those in need – every minute of every day, no matter how hazardous the conditions. In 2025, SMR volunteers and Police Scotland team members collectively spent 39,229 hours across a record-breaking 1,270 call-outs, with 901 people rescued.
From tragedy comes clarity
Meanwhile, south of the Scottish border, it was a tragedy on Scafell Pinnacle in 1903 that would set in motion a move towards professionally-trained mountain rescue in England and Wales. Until then, climbers and walkers depended solely on the goodwill of shepherds, farmers, quarrymen and road-builders to get them out of trouble. The deaths of four courageous climbers – who fell around 200 feet while all roped up together after the leader slipped – placed a spotlight on the need for an official, permanent service to counter the dangers posed as mountaineering gained more traction as both a hobby and a serious pursuit.
Within a year of the accident, basic first aid and rudimentary mountain rescue equipment was being used on Lake District mountainsides. However, though the Scafell incident had jolted the climbing community into action, it wasn't until another accident in the Peak District during 1928 that solid steps were taken to form what would eventually become the Mountain Rescue Committee (MRC) in 1950, having evolved from the First Aid Committee of Mountaineering Clubs founded back in 1936.
The accident brought into sharp focus the extreme dangers and logistical challenges faced by rescuers, as a badly injured climber named Edgar Pryor had to be extricated from a gully by the Long Climb at Laddow, and then carried on a makeshift stretcher for four hours – having been knocked off a high ledge by another climber falling down the upper pitch. His surgeon was to later remark that the "...absence of morphia with the transport had done more damage to the limb than the mountain..."
Morphine, as we know it today, would in time become a mandatory component of any official rescue equipment list, gaining government approval by 1949.
An uphill struggle
The first civilian MRTs originated in Coniston and Keswick in 1947, borne out of a collective mental and physical exhaustion from a series of rescues the previous year. The need for a more coordinated and organised approach was stark. In the beginning, most of that coordination was mustered at a local level, with communities galvanised into action across England and Wales following accidents and searches for missing people occurring with increasing frequency.
A similar picture in Wales unfolded during the early years, with brave rescues undertaken throughout the valleys by amateur climbers and farmers, often without any specialised equipment. One of the earliest official MRTs in Wales was formed in 1964 at Ogwen Cottage, Capel Curig, which had been turned into a mountain training school with the instructors and their students spearheading rescue efforts. It was, in part, a response to a rise in accidents around Eryri (Snowdonia), as the alluring mountains enticed more people to test themselves.
The Brecon Mountain Rescue Team followed in 1968, after a successful but arduous search for a missing walker crystallised the need for a permanent rescue presence in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons). When the team was in its infancy, their office was solely a mobile one, in the form of a Triumph Herald brimming with ropes, stretchers and first aid supplies. But it didn't matter; they were a small but dedicated and driven group of volunteers united by a passion to help those in need.
Cooperation and collaboration
Nowadays, collaboration is key for Mountain Rescue England and Wales [MREW], with shared resources being a feature of numerous rescues and missing persons searches. The cross-border cooperation was also used to great effect during the floods of December 2015 which affected large swathes of Britain, including North Wales, Cumbria, Yorkshire and Lancashire.
In recent years the number of incidents continues to rise across England and Wales, especially in the Lake District, Edale and North Wales, including a considerable increase in call-outs involving 18–24-year-olds since 2019. In 2024 the teams answered 3,784 calls for help, resulting in 3,093 deployments, and it was the first time in MREW's history they had no day without a call-out.
An invaluable service
It's clear that mountain rescue teams are needed – and valued – more than ever. Without their expertise and dedication, there would be more suffering, serious injuries and deaths, as well as an absence of closure for families waiting for news of a missing loved one. Our MRTs have sacrificed an immense amount over the years to keep us safe; countless special occasions and family meals missed or interrupted when the call comes in.
Sleep deprivation, exhaustion, putting their bodies on the line in often treacherous situations – heading into conditions that would cause most to turn back. We should never take their selflessness and altruism for granted. Surely it is time for mountain rescue volunteers to be paid, and for Mountain Rescue to receive the same level of support afforded to our other emergency services.