Annual Emergency Training at Contours Holidays
To keep everyone in our office up to date and ready to assist in case of an emergency on the trails, Contours set out on our annual emergency training.
Annual Emergency Training at Contours Holidays
https://www.contours.co.uk/emergency-training-at-contours-walking-holidays
by Cass Jenks
What if I get lost? What if I get hurt? What if I can’t complete my day’s walk?
They aren’t questions any walker really wants to think about, but staff at Contours Holidays held them at the forefront of our minds all week during our annual emergency training exercises. Our end goal was simple: we wanted to ensure all three concerns could be met with a simple, one-line answer. Contours will sort it all out.
.jpg)
The secret to competency under pressure is a combination of knowledge and repetition, so we split into three groups to ensure everyone got the benefit of the training.
Each group took a day during the week to go out on a walk, using a marked OS map and printed instructions to find our way around the Gratton Dale area in the Peak District.
While out there, we called into the office twice per group to simulate two emergencies per group - the details of these weren't specified in advance, so some were more creative than others!
The whole exercise proved immensely useful, emphasising all the best ways to respond to an emergency call and teaching us a good deal about what it might be like to be the group out on the trail in such a situation.
Locating a statue from the directions.
.jpg)
A set of new walking boots before and after a bog was sorely misjudged...
.jpg)
The office team leaps into action when a group calls in lost.
.jpg)
Enjoying some beautiful weather!
.jpg)
The lovely Derbyshire scenery - best enjoyed in the company of a dog, of course!
From identifying a point on the map from a colleague's deliberately-flustered depiction of landmarks to gathering all the right information we might need to pass on to mountain rescue in an emergency, we put all our procedures into action and emerged sure of our abilities to handle emergency situations.
We hope no-one reading ever has to put us to the test, and instead has a wonderful, safe time while out walking the trails!
Marketing and Strategy Consultant
Writer, editor and Google-wrangler at Contours Holidays, Cass spends each weekend on the trails, walking the dog or plummeting downhill along Wales’ best mountain biking tracks.
