By James Humphrey
A supermarket worker has said that volunteering with Arrochar’s mountain rescue service has shaped the person he is.
Alistair Maclntyre, who works as a retail manager in Morrisons has volunteered for over five years with the charity.
The Arrochar Mountain Rescue Team consists of 30 volunteers who are available for 365 days a year and are trained for search and rescue operations in the area.
In this year alone, the Arrochar Rescue Team has been involved in 16 callouts and 15 incidents doing 680 hours’ worth of voluntary work.
As part of Helly Hansen’s Open Mountain Month campaign which is designed to help encourage and inspire people to get into the outdoors and mountains, Alistair has featured in a video where he gives a few pointers for aspiring hillwalkers and speaks of his pride at volunteering for the rescue team.
Alistair explained: “I’m proud to be a part of Arrochar Mountain Rescue because I know that every single person in the team has the exact same drive when that callout comes in and the pager goes off.
“Someone’s in need of help and we need to go rescue them, no matter what day it is, no matter what time it is, no matter what the weather is we will always respond.
“Every single callout that I have ever been on I’ve taken something different from.
“No one callout has shaped who I am, it’s every single callout that has made the person that’s standing here today.
“It just teaches an awful lot of skills that I never thought I would have but I do have now.”
Alistair explained how he came to be involved.
He said: “I saw the Mountain Rescue Team in action one day when I was out private hillwalking with a friend and with me having a love for the mountains, I decided that I wanted to join. Five-and-a-half years later I’m a full operational member.
“You’ve got to be a keen hillwalker and have good mountaineering skills in both summer and winter conditions to be a volunteer.
“But most importantly you’ve got to know how to read a map.
“It doesn’t have a battery, it’s not going to die, if you know how to read a map you’ll get home safely.
“Outside of Mountain Rescue, it’s my mini goal in life to get to the summit of every route on my home mountains.
“Nothing makes you more alive then when you’re about to summit a new hill or when you’re just about to see that view that very few people have ever seen before.”
And as well as saving lives, he feels that volunteering has a positive impact on his own health.
“The most common injuries are leg injuries callout wise on average around 20-25 callouts per year for the team” he explained.
“If you want to get out into the mountains, do it but you also need to make sure that what you are doing is equal to your skillset, don’t take on something that is outside of your comfort zone.
“Being out in the mountains is not all just about walking, getting out into the hills for me is mind clearing. It helps me clear my head from my 9-5 job.
“Some people enjoy the mountains in all different shapes and forms whether it would be mountain biking or photography just to name a few.”
Helly Hansen has been working with the Arrochar Rescue Team for two years while also being their official kit partner supplying them with gear including jackets and trousers.
Alistair said: “When we got in partnership with Helly Hansen and we were trying on their jackets, I had a suspicion that I was going to love them.
“I know when I put them on they’re going to keep me warm, dry.”
