Mobility is critical in Mountain Rescue; without effective transportation we would struggle to reach many casualties in a timely manner or to get them safely and rapidly off the hill.

Thus, the team currently has three vehicles with 4-by-4 capability, although only two of them are capable of traversing the worst terrain such as the old drover's track from Hayfield up to Edale Cross or entirely off-road; these of course are our Land Rover Defenders, now getting very long in the tooth (Registered 2000 and 2004).

And of course, we demand a great deal of our vehicles - not just anything will do! In addition to being able to traverse off-road terrain and being incredibly robust and durable, our vehicles need to be able to:

- Transport 4 team members and a driver, plus their personal equipment and team equipment, both on- and off-road.

- Enable the carrying of a stretcher, often entailing a reconfiguration of the inside of the vehicle, unless a purpose-made stretcher load space has been provided.

- Tow the Water Team trailer as well as carry Water Team members.

- Act as a remote rendezvous Command & Control Point i.e. when Control is away from Base.

As part of its resilience planning the team has to look to the day that one of the vehicles eventually fails and has to be replaced, possibly at some point within the next few years; with the cost of a new, fitted-out and liveried off-road vehicle being in the region of £85,000, we have realised that we need to start fundraising specifically for a replacement vehicle as we simply cannot wait until a vehicle gives up before we start trying to find the necessary funds.

Consequently we are launching our 'replacement vehicle fundraising campaign' with the aim of raising enough money to substantially, or entirely, pay for a replacement vehicle when the time comes.

This is certainly a monumental challenge but one that we feel we can, with your help, achieve.

Thank you in advance.

Kinder MRT