Mountain rescue stretchers evolved from the various ‘litters’ which were used to evacuate casualties from the battlefields of the world over eons of time. Early ones were then a piece of canvas or blanket stretched between two pieces of wood. As the sport of mountaineering progressed so did the technology of rescue stretchers and one of the most unusual developments was the inflatable version. Designed primarily for waterborne rescue by a a guy called Roger Daynes, they had a limited success and in Roger’s own words:- “I let myself down because of not finding enough time to fully explore the possibilities … I felt there could have been a small backpack version that an individual could deploy.” Though not a commercial success, the idea was good and the stretchers did get some journey time as you will see from the pictures opposite. Snowsled was owned by Roger Daynes and when he retired in 2017 the two inflatable stretchers were kindly passed on to us. Snowsled continues to trade in a different guise.