AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH!

Fed up of sitting behind a desk all day, Louise Robertson, 60, headed for the hills...

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The sound of the helicopter rotor was deafening as we hovered above the rocky ground while I was hooked up to the winch.

The terrain around Glaslyn lake, Wales, was too rough for the chopper to land, so instead there was only one way out.

'Go!' my fellow volunteer shouted, as I was gradually lowered into the dark sky.

But then I started to spin around. 'I'm going to be sick!' I thought, as the adrenaline surged. Next thing I knew, my feet touched the ground and with no time to lose I unhooked myself and unclipped my rucksack of medical and rescue equipment. There was no denying it was scary, but it was thrilling too.

If I told you I was a stuntwoman filming a blockbuster movie, you might believe me.

In fact, I'm a 60-year-old woman doing my voluntary job rescuing people from mountains, mineshafts and caves. And on this particular occasion, we had come to help a casualty who had tripped and injured their lower leg while out hiking.

It might not sound like the most likely job for a woman of my age, and it certainly hasn't always been this way. After school I trained as a hairdresser and was doing that when I met my husband Pete, when I was 18. Pete, then 20, was an avid caver so we spent weekends hiking on the moors near our home in Gwernaffield, and he took me exploring abandoned lead mines. He taught me to abseil down the disused shafts, which could be hundreds of feet deep, and walk through the different levels and chambers looking for old relics.

EXCITING ADVENTURES