Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team

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Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team

Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team operates in the Brecon Beacons National Park & surrounding areas The team covers the central area of the Brecon Beacons.
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The Team trains regularly, meeting weekly and an all day exercise once a month. The team is made up of volunteers, who give up their time to help people in trouble on the mountains in urban areas and flooding. Incorporating Pen-y-Fan, the highest point at 886m and the valley of Ystradfellte waterfalls, Newport, Cardiff and the valleys. The total area that we provide cover for is 1437 square km. Th

ere are a total of 4 civilian mountain rescue teams that cover the Brecon Beacons National Park and South Wales. We can also be called to assist in searches with one of the other teams or police authority. The team operates from its base at Merthyr Tydfill near the Brecon Beacons. Team members come from all walks of life from students and school teachers to accountants, office workers and engineers. The team is called out using a call-out system that is activated by the police. Further messages then inform members of where and what the incident is. Members go to base and take the first response Vehicle to the incident site and establish a temporary control. The Control Vehicle then leaves with a crew. Members who cannot make the Control Vehicle then make their way to the RV Point. The team is a fully voluntary organisation, and is on-call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We rely primarily on donations from members of the public to maintain this essential life-saving rescue service. You can help support the work we do by clicking this link:
https://www.justgiving.com/centralbeaconsmrt

https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/cbmrt/

You can also help if you like and share our posts to raise awareness of the work we do.

10/06/2026

Callout:
Tuesday 9 June @ 15:45
Injured Male, Brecon Beacons

Our 85th request for help and 76th deployment of the year yesterday was a request from Dyfed-Powys Police to assist a male walker near the Neuadd Ridge in Brecon Beacons NT/YG Bannau Brycheiniog. The gentleman had injured his ankle after losing his footing and became unable to put weight on it.
We’re grateful to a group of passers by who helped the gent and his companion off the ridge down the slope but became unable to move him further.

Two of our Remote Rescue Medics were soon with the gentleman assessing his injury and, using one of our protective shelters with heat packs, they applied a splint to his leg with pain relief, while other members prepared one of our stretchers.

It was then a carry of the gentleman on the stretcher to roadside and car park for his onward transport to hospital for scans on his injury.

Shortly after 9.00pm we were back at base with kit sorted and vehicles ready to go for the next time.
We of course hope our casualty’s injury isn’t a long term one and send our best wishes for a speedy recovery.

04/06/2026

Callouts Update, Part 2 of 2.

Our story of the end of May, on Saturday 30th, continues with the “4 incidents in 1 day”.

Saturday 30 May was also day 1 of our collaboration with Rhondda Cynon Taf Council to help rid the Bwlch Mountain of the “river of rubbish”, which you may have seen or heard about.

At midday we were called by Dyfed-Powys Police to assist a walker who’d sustained a head injury after slipping on the footpath from Pont ar Daf to Pen Y Fan. A few team members left the removal of rubbish event in one of our response vehicles but were stood down whilst en route after one of our members and a member of Brecon Mountain Rescue Team arrived at the car park to find Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust (WAST) Paramedics dealing with the injured person. They’d been able to walk themselves to the car park.

At 3.15pm we were back out to a call to assist WAST with a child who had fallen from a tree in Forest Fawr near Castle Coch. WAST Paramedics arrived a few minutes ahead of us and were able to deal with. As we were standing down the next request was received from the First Responders at Bike Park Wales, asking for our help with a stretcher carry to the awaiting ambulance of a MTB Rider with pelvic and femur injuries.

As that was concluding we were called by Dyfed Powys Police to the waterfalls area of Bannau Brycheiniog - Brecon Beacons - National Park to a walker with a suspected fractured ankle.
After treatment by one our team Doctors and our Remote Rescue Medics the casualty was stretcher carried, with grateful assistance from a member of Western Beacons Mountain Rescue Team, out of the gorge for their onward transport to hospital.

At the end of May we’ve received 82 calls for help, to which we’ve deployed team members to 73 of those, we’re having a busy year so far.

02/06/2026

Callouts Update:
Alongside our regular training and the monumental litter picking weekend you may have seen or read about, the calls for our help have also flowed through the tail end of May. There’s a lot to fit in so a summary is here to save scrolling through a very long post. This is Part 1 of 2, with Part 2 to follow:

The evening of Thursday 21 May through to Monday 25 May, we were called to the Neuadd Valley area twice (21st & 25th), both times working jointly with our colleagues at Brecon Mountain Rescue Team. On 21st, for a walker reporting an asthma attack near Pen Y Fan and on 25th, a walker suffering heatstroke during the heatwave period on the mountain above Neuadd Vally and Torpantau. Both occasions, the casualties were treated for their conditions by team Doctors, Paramedics and Remote Rescue Medics before being carefully transported off each of the mountains.
Also over the Bank Holiday weekend period we were called twice to the waterfalls area of Bannau Brycheiniog - Brecon Beacons - National Park, 23rd & 25th, both for suspected fractures of lower legs/ankles. Both were treated with pain relief and splintage before being carried to their onward journeys to hospital.

Thursday 28 May was a “5 incidents in 1 day” occasion.
Started with another visit to the Neuadd Valley and another piece of joint working with our Brecon MRT colleagues, to assist a walker with an ankle injury below the summit of Cribyn mountain. Treatment by Paramedic and Remote Rescue Medics for a suspected broken ankle, it was then a stretcher carry off the mountain for onward transport to hospital.
Number 2 of the day was a request to assist our First Responder friends and Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust Paramedics at Bike Park Wales with a stretcher carry to the ambulance of a bike rider with spinal and pelvic injury.
While finishing number 2, number’s 3 and 4 arrived simultaneously. A request from South Wales Police to assist with an extraction from a ravine of a person found deceased at Clydach Vale, Rhondda and at the same time a request from Dyfed-Powys Police for a walker with a seriously large wound to their knee and unable to walk at the waterfalls area.
Soon after our one 4x4s arrived at Clydach Vale it was agreed that Police Officers were able to deal with and we stood down. We extend our condolences to the person’s family and friends.
From our other 4x4 at the waterfalls, one of our team’s Doctors and Remote Rescue Medic dressed the wound and very carefully the casualty was able to slowly walk with support.
While we helping the casualty into their car in Cwm Porth car park, we were approached by a walker emerging from the trail with a hand injury after falling during their walk. Our team Doctor was soon on it and after giving a full assessment with pain relief, the walker was advised to hospital for a x-ray.

Part 2 covering the weekend of 30th May will follow soon.

01/06/2026

Two 12-hour days.

More than a kilometre of rope deployed each day.

Several tonnes of rubbish removed from the hillside.

When we first saw the scale of the fly-tipping at Bwlch Mountain, we knew we wanted to help. Over the weekend, our volunteers put their rope rescue skills to work to help clear the site and restore this beautiful part of South Wales.

A huge thank you to Rhondda Cynon Taf Council. This operation simply wouldn’t have been possible without them. Their team worked alongside us throughout, provided overalls and gloves, collected the rubbish from the bottom of the mountain and supported the operation from start to finish.

We’re incredibly proud of what was achieved together.

We’re a volunteer-run charity and receive no government funding. If you’d like to support our work, you can donate here:

https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/bwlchcleanup

31/05/2026

1 kilometre of rope.

12 hours on the hillside.

More than a tonne of rubbish recovered.

Earlier this year, we were horrified by the scale of the fly-tipping at Bwlch Mountain. As people who love the outdoors, we wanted to help.

After months of planning with the landowner and Rhondda Cynon Taf Council, our volunteers put their rope rescue skills to work and helped clear the site.

And because mountain rescue doesn’t stop, the team also responded to four callouts during the day.

We’re a volunteer-run charity. If you’d like to support our work, donations can be made here:

https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/bwlchcleanup

Please don’t litter. Somebody always has to clear it up.

30/05/2026

We said what we said.

21/05/2026

Back in April, we were invited by the Welsh Government to speak to social media teams from across a range of departments and organisations, including Wales, Cadw and Climate Cymru

Apparently, they’d seen the work we’ve been doing across our social channels and wanted to hear more about our social media approach, where our ideas come from, and how campaigns like the Pro Tips series have managed to reach so many people while still sharing important outdoor safety messaging.

Spoiler alert: there is no strategy. Sometimes it’s dancing in a music video, sometimes it’s calling people a muppet in a pro tip and sometimes it’s simply surprising a team member by discovering their face has unexpectedly been plastered across our socials in the name of banter.

So off Carys and Huw went to somehow fill 45 minutes talking about mountain rescue, public engagement, social media, and the strange reality that people actually find us funny…

By all accounts, it actually went pretty well.

Yay us. 🙌🏽

18/05/2026

Callout Update:
Sunday (17 May) brought us our 68th callout of the year, and a notable one it was.

Sunday started routinely for us, some team members supporting the event at Dare Valley Country Park, with other members attending our monthly training day honing technical rescue skills in an area of Rhigos Mountain.

Callout #67 occurred soon after 10.30am with a request to assist Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust Paramedics with an injured mountain biker in forestry above Llantrisant. A few team members were deployed from training while training continued for others, and after a short time we had the injured biker on our stretcher with their leg injury and carried them to the ambulance.
Resumption to training was soon restored.

Callout #68 occurred at 1.50pm with a call from Dyfed-Powys Police to assist two walkers who’d become stranded while walking in the waterfalls area of Bannau Brycheiniog - Brecon Beacons - National Park, the two had found themselves in difficulty after walking off the formal trails.
Our training was collapsed for the day and as soon as the mountain bike event finished our team members from there responded as well.

Thanks to what3words, , Sarloc Rescue and our Incident Controller on the phone to the reporting person, we quickly had a good indication of their location, yet what we found on arriving at their location surprised us all.

One of the walkers had slipped and slid head first down a slope, coming to rest above a 20 feet vertical drop thanks to one of his feet becoming jammed between two tree trunks!

Presented with an “upside down” casualty, our first arriving team members quickly set up an abseiling system for one of our team members to access the person, make them safe with ropes and a harness (imagine fitting a harness to someone else who’s flat out facing downwards?) then lower them safely below for an assessment of injuries to be made by one of our Remote Rescue Medics.

Suspecting a possible ankle/lower leg injury we treated it as a possible fracture with pain relief and splinting, then a challenging stretcher carry out of the gorge through woodland onto the main trails then out to the vehicles’ rendezvous point.

With the help of our friend transport of the casualty and their companion to hospital was sorted.
From leaving our homes at breakfastime, we returned to base to sort kit, make ready for the next callout, then back at our homes shortly before 10pm.

A long day out and we send all casualties from Sunday our best wishes for speedy recoveries.

16/05/2026

Let’s all try and be good humans.

15/05/2026

Big news for this year’s Cardiff Three Peaks Challenge…

We’re delighted to announce that Osprey is officially sponsoring the event.

Not only does that mean even more of the money raised will go directly towards helping Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team save lives, it also means prizes…

On the day, we’ll be running a raffle where you’ll have the chance to win one of two Osprey Hikelite backpacks, alongside lots of other prizes.

Osprey will also be giving prizes to the top two fundraisers from each route, so if you’ve been thinking about setting up a JustGiving page, now’s the time.

We’ve now got fewer than 100 places left across all routes, so if your friend keeps saying “I might sign up,” this is your sign to stop accepting “might.”

Sign up, raise some money, climb some hills and help support your local mountain rescue team.

https://cardiffthreepeakschallenge.co.uk

Address

Blaen Dowlais, Rear Of High Street, Dowlais
Merthyr Tydfil
CF483PW

Telephone

+441685708800

Website

http://www.cbmrt.org.uk/, https://cardiffthreepeakschallenge.co.uk/

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