UKH

I’m training with my local team (over in Europe) where we do a lot of winter ski piste work, technical/industrial rescue (working with the local fire brigade’s technical team) and rescues at crags etc. where the walk in isn’t long or we use a quad bike. As such we don’t have a lot of the big walk-ins and hill days that I remember from the UK and we don’t tend to carry our personal rucksacks, but rather load up with ropes, technical gear, 1st aid etc. 

I’ve started to carry a Mammut Alpine chalk bag to carry a few personal items when away from the vehicles. I have my phone, a notebook and pen, snack bar, small bottle of water, head torch, maybe an extra layer etc. in and on it.
https://www.mammut.com/us/en/products/2050-00882/alpine-chalk-bag

A couple of the guys just stuff their pockets, it’s ok with jackets on in the snow, less so with t-shirts on in the summer heat. Quite a few use chest rigs, but they’re annoying when using chest harnesses for technical work. One uses holster style leg pouches because he’s one of the quad drivers and he likes the way they sit out of the way, again not ideal with a harness. 
 

So I was wondering what others use. I saw on a YouTube video from Buxton team that they’re using gear vests, anybody have experience with these? Anybody got any other options they like?

We just load up our rucsacs. I think our gear guidelines say 65 litre bag for summer and 80 for winter, but I've managed with a 60 litre bag for both so far. Rope bags, cas bags, first aid packs over the top, belay and lowering bags inside, stretchers strapped outside and splints or vac mat carried alongside. There's essential gear we all need to carry like food, drinks, warm kit, first aid kit, harness, helmet, bothy bag, torches, etc. That you can't get into pockets and need to be in a bag.

When I was on a Welsh team we carried 45ish litre rucksacks with personal kit, hill ropes for rope techs, and basic first aid kits, and then loaded whatever else we were carrying up the hill on top. The logic being that you don't know whats going to happen next - even if you think the job is going to be short something might happen which extends it and you might even be redeployed to another casualty on the same hill.

I'm on an English team in much less mountainous terrain now and lots of people carry bumbags and leave extra kit (like harnesses) in the car unless they know they'll need them. It still doesn't sit quite right with me but the fact is that most callouts are a ten minute walk from the road, if that.

Our team issue a small roll top dry bag for personal kit that we clip to whatever team bag we are carrying, seems to work well and is flexible. 

I generally prefer having my big bag with me just in case circumstances change, but I can definitely imagine a scenario when having a bum bag with just the bare essentials would work well. You can get long distance runners bum bags with lots of pocket options, they'd work well.

I'm in a team that attends lots of jobs with short walk-ins.

I used to use a chest rig but found it was a bit small so now use a large bum bag/waist pack which I find is big enough for the essentials. It is also easy to stuff in the top of my big pack on jobs where I need to carry that in as well.

I'm not mountain rescue, but I have a Black Diamond BBEE rucksack that I take with me practically everywhere - mine's about 10 litres, but the design has changed a bit since I bought it.

However, for carrying a few essentials, like a drink, snacks, phone, wallet, jumper/waterproof, it's utterly brilliant.

And it's light/soft enough that you could easily stuff it in the top of/clip it to something bigger.

Thanks, it’s sounds like some variation on my small bag or a bum bag is common. I like my bag, but if I have water in it there’s isn’t much room for to use it as a pouch. I’ll have a look what running bags are around to separate the water from the stuff (and what could work with a harness and a team kit rucksack on). 

I have a 3 litre Evoc hip pack that I bought for biking that does the job for me - has space for a couple of small bottles, a large/small compartment out back and a small pouch each side of the waist belt. Radio, phone and notepad go in a small chest harness and you’re good to go for travelling light.

https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Evoc-Hip-Pack-Pro-3L-Waist-Pack_203296.htm?sku=617...

I'm on an MRT in South Wales. I use a 40 litre rucksack for my personal kit. As others have said, you never know what's going to happen or where you're going to end up when you're on a callout, including potentially being diverted to another incident. We do have an accident blackspot where we have fairly short walk-ins for tough carry-outs from a gorge and I in summer conditions will generally just take my bum bag on those, but I'm virtually never in the first hill party on those callouts because of where I live, so I know if I need to take my full kit instead.

Some of our team have harnesses (or SAR-bras) for radio and a few small items but I prefer the bum bag because then I can carry kit as well.