Shelter Stone provides medical and rescue services to Ultra-Trail Snowdonia
Shelter Stone has continued its involvement with major trail and mountain running events by providing professional medical and rescue services at Ultra-Trail Snowdonia organised by UTMB UK.
Ultra-Train Snowdonia is a continuous mountain running race around Eryri (Snowdonia) national park in Wales. Participants can enter 100mile, 100km, 50km or 25km races, which run over 48 hours, all starting and finishing in a lively event centre in Llanberis, and visiting some or all of the 12 intermediate aid stations. Over 2800 participants took park this year, which was a significant increase on previous years.
The area covered by the races, the arduous nature of the terrain, the number of participants, and a non-stop nature of the race, all create a logistical challenge for safeguarding the participants. As ever we worked closely with the event organisers to agree on the requirements and optimal cover across the event. The event built on our successful relationship with UTMB UK from Arc of Attrition earlier in the year, and our UTS team once again comprised response teams, a blue light ambulance, aid station medics, finish line doctors, a medical director, and an incident controller in race control.
Response and medical team members ready for the weekend ahead
Credit: UTMB / Gilly Photography
This year saw dry, sunny and warm conditions - a blessing in some ways, but creating challenging running conditions. The medical team was kept busy dealing with the effect of the heat on participants, the usual slew of endurance related complaints (blisters, muscular skeletal etc.) and a handful other illnesses and injuries.
We were acutely aware of the potential for the event to cause additional demand on some of the busiest Mountain Rescue teams in the country, and the local A&E department in Bangor. Close liaison with the local MR teams meant that our Response Teams were able to manage all but one incident on the course with minimal impact on local resources. For that one incident, when an integrated response was required, all parties worked well together to achieve the best patient outcome including helicopter evacuation for a lower leg injury.
Likewise, senior clinical reviews within the Shelter Stone team meant that A&E assessment was only requested for those who absolutely required urgent investigations, with carefully considered referrals and clear written handovers. This approach results in a significantly better experience for the participants, as well as for the local services.
Hayden Arrowsmith, UTMB UK Event Director, commented:
“Shelter Stone’s dedicated medical and response team members provided an exemplary service at Ultra-Trail Snowdonia this May. Their professionalism and comprehensive medical coverage was essential to the safety and wellbeing of our participants and instrumental to the overall success of the event. With medical cover scheduled continuously throughout the extended weekend, including overnight, Shelter Stone staff demonstrated commitment to the requirements and demands of our challenging ultra-trail event. Their expertise, swift response and cooperation were critical in ensuring a secure environment for our participants to achieve their extraordinary. The collaboration and ease of working together provided me as Event Director with confidence in our decision making and peace of mind throughout our event”
If you are interested in getting the very best professional medical and rescue services for your event, check out our Services and don’t hesitate to Get in Touch. If you are a suitably experience response team member or healthcare professional and interested in what we do, see how you can Work for Us.
