Call Out Mountain Rescue?: A Pocket Guide to Safety on the Hill Spiral-bound – 1 Nov. 2010

Lots of useful and interesting information here. The style is engaging and pleasantly informal - a little as though you were talking to an experienced member of a mountain rescue team. The advice is pragmatic and sensible and the book includes extra chapters on the history of the mountain rescue initiative.The drawback is the format. The font face is not the easiest to read (very light, rather small, horizontally-stretched sans-serif); the paper is quite thick and heavy; and the whole thing is spiral bound. There's a good deal of negative space in the design, which makes the text easier to read but means that the information is carried on far more paper than is necessary. The combination of this, and the extra chapters on background etc, makes this a book which is inappropriately heavy for a rucksack, and which is likely to be rather short-lived compared to a solidly-bound book. It would be great to have a separate edition which extrapolates the key on-hill information and presents it in a good legible format in as light a booklet as possible. After all, it's information which you hope you will never need, but if the worst happened it would be absolutely invaluable. It would be great to have it available in a format which encouraged you to slip it into your rucksack on every trip - just in case.

Judy Whiteside has produced an outstanding summary of what all walkers & climbers should know in order to remain safe in the UK's mountains. This superb publication will serve as both a guide for the novice and aide mémoire for the more experienced mountaineer. However, it's worth noting that this book is not a technical manual and, whilst it might reveal some knowledge gaps (or memory lapses!), it is unlikely to fill them: for comprehensive instruction on the skills discussed, I recommend  Hill Walking: The Official Handbook of the Mountain Leader and Walking Group Leader Schemes  and  Winter Skills: Essential Walking and Climbing Techniques  (both published by UKMTB).Nonetheless, the real value of this pocket guide is how it will inform decision-making when thinking about summoning help and what you can do to improve the chances of a successful outcome in an emergency situation: that, coupled with an excellent précis history of mountain rescue, has to be worth the cover price!

Firstly I should come clean and say that my cousin wrote this book so I am not a completely unbiased reviewer. However I didn't actually buy it until preparing for a walking trip with a group of 19 teenagers and 14 adults a few weeks back. With very mixed abilities and the terrible weather we wanted to make sure everyone was fully prepared for our trip to Snowdonia. As a small pocket guide it is really robust and practical, and the information is presented very clearly and concisely. It contains lots of handy tips from experienced mountain walkers (like how to put on an extra layer under a jacker when on a gusty hilltop) which we used, and very clear guidance on what to do/not to do and if the worst happens, how to call for help and what to expect. I have tremendous respect for Mountain Rescue and this is an essential purchase for anyone walking in the hills and mountains of the UK whether for an occasional weekend like me, or on a more regular basis. Read it from cover to cover when you buy it and then again before each trip as a refresher.

excellent read - it was read cover to cover by someone who doesn't often pick up books to read for pleasure