What we do

The name says “mountain”, but our work is far broader than that. In a typical year, fewer than half of our incidents involve walkers on the hill. The rest are mountain biker mishaps, searches for missing people who may be at risk, support for the Police and Ambulance service, flooding and severe weather.

In this section

What happens when you call 999

From 999 to rescue

Every incident follows the same chain, from the moment someone dials 999 to the moment the last volunteer gets home. Scroll down to follow it.

1. The call

   Someone dials 999

   They ask for the Police, then Mountain Rescue. Sometimes it is the ambulance crew that asks for us, when a patient is somewhere they can’t reach.

   83% of our incidents in 2025 were requests from the ambulance service or police

2. Minutes later

   The police call us out

   The police are in charge of search and rescue on land. They decide whether mountain rescue is needed and pass the job to our team leader on duty. That is why you should always call 999 rather than the team directly: it is the fastest way to get us moving.

3. Within minutes

   Every phone in the team buzzes

   Whoever is free drops what they are doing, whether that is work, dinner or sleep. Our volunteers are on call every hour of every day.

   31% of our incidents in 2025 were after dark

4. Within half an hour

   On the road

   Members head to base or straight to the meeting point. The first vehicles are usually rolling within half an hour, carrying the stretchers, casualty kit and ropes the job needs.

   15 km from base, on average, as the crow flies

5. Finding you

   Finding the casualty

   A grid reference or location link takes us straight to the right spot. Without one, a rescue can turn into a search, which needs more people and takes longer. How to give your exact location.

6. On scene

   Care where they lie

   Our casualty carers assess and treat the patient on the spot: easing pain, splinting injuries and getting them warm, often in rain, wind and darkness.

7. Often hours

   The carry

   Then we bring them off the hill. Carrying someone two miles across wet peat in the dark is slow, hard work, and it can need twenty or more people taking turns on the stretcher.

8. Handover

   Into the ambulance

   We hand the casualty over to an ambulance crew or a helicopter, then make sure every team member is off the hill and accounted for.

9. Back at base

   Ready for the next call

   Kit is cleaned, checked and restocked and the incident is logged. Only then do our volunteers head home, ready to go again.

   2.4 hours on an average incident, with about 9 volunteers

Every step is done by unpaid volunteers. Your donations pay for the vehicles, kit and training behind every one.

Donate to the team

Rescue on the moors

Twisted ankles and broken legs are still the classic mountain rescue job. Our casualty carers treat the patient where they lie while the team brings in a stretcher, and carrying someone off wet peat in the dark can take twenty or more people. Sometimes the person isn’t hurt, just lost and cold, and those calls matter just as much.

Searching for missing people

When someone vulnerable goes missing, the police can ask us to help search, often in towns, woods and riverbanks rather than on the hill. Our search planners work alongside the police to decide where to look first. Read more about searching for missing people.

Supporting the ambulance service

When a patient is somewhere an ambulance can’t reach — a farm track, a quarry, a riverbank, a remote house in deep snow — Yorkshire Ambulance Service can ask for our help. Our casualty carers, 4×4 vehicles and stretcher teams get paramedics to the patient and the patient to the ambulance.

Water and flooding

Our swiftwater rescue technicians are trained and equipped to work safely in and near moving water. They search rivers and reservoirs for missing people and help with flooding in the valleys below the moors.

Severe weather

When snow closes the A628 Woodhead Pass and the moorland roads around Holme Moss, our Land Rovers are often among the few vehicles that can still move. We help stranded drivers, and have taken doctors, nurses, carers and essential supplies where they needed to go.

Behind the scenes

For every hour spent at an incident there are many more that nobody sees: weekly training, servicing vehicles, testing and logging equipment, fundraising, school talks and the paperwork that comes with running a charity. Our members gave thousands of hours last year, all of it unpaid.