8th Expert Conference Mountains and Safety
29.11.2012
Yesterday, the 8th Expert Conference on Mountains and Safety took place at the Educational Centre for Protection and Rescue of the Republic of Slovenia in Ig, organized by the Alpine Association of Slovenia, the Mountain Rescue Association of Slovenia and the Mountains and Safety Committee in collaboration with the Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Protection and Rescue.
Over 40 participants attended the conference, where they listened to 5 presentations by experts from the Alpine Association of Slovenia, the Mountain Rescue Association of Slovenia and Triglav National Park. This year, they presented one main topic from various perspectives, all in connection with the field of prevention and safety in the mountains. Thus, with the conference, we wanted to analyze the situation regarding the use of mobile navigation devices in the mountains and the dilemmas that arise from this. An analysis of mountain accidents this year and individual cases were also presented, while participants and speakers exchanged experiences, established new and strengthened existing professional ties.
Matjaž Šerkezi, professional associate of the Alpine Association of Slovenia, alpinist and mountain rescuer, presented the use of mobile navigation devices and applications in mountaineering, the advantages and disadvantages of using GPS in the mountains, whether a GPS track can replace a PZS guide's scouting trip, the safety of using tracks on websites, and which mobile GPS application to choose to serve us best. And who is iPlaninec? "It is no one else but the informed mountaineer. It is important to acquire information, knowledge, experience and to know how to use it all in practice," said Šerkezi.
Jože Rovan, markacism instructor at the Alpine Association of Slovenia, excellently presented the hiking trails stretching across all of Slovenia for over 9000 kilometers, the hiking trail cadastre, gave his critical assessment of the share of GPS-recorded trails and the quality of recordings, his experiences in collaboration and preparation of hiking maps of the PZS Publishing House, and the relationship between paper maps, electronic maps for PC and maps in GPS devices.
Jani Bele, President of the GRZS Information and Analysis Commission, presented on actual examples the use of GPS in rescue and search operations and a review of rescue work in the mountains from 2012 to date with emphasis on mountaineering and alpinistic accidents. Mountain rescuers have already carried out 395 rescue operations this year, a quarter of all were carried out by Tolmin mountain rescuers, who triggered 64 operations for rescuing paragliders. In this year's operations to date, about 410 casualties were involved. There were 28 fatalities, including 14 who were injured while performing mountaineering activities. The most common causes of accidents in the mountains are still falls and slips, and it is risky that most of these occur on descent between 13:00 and 15:00, which often also indicates insufficient psychophysical preparedness. A common cause of accidents is also inadequate personal or technical equipment, or lack of knowledge in using it. Most accidents occur during the peak visits to our mountains on Saturdays and Sundays and in the summer months, specifically from June to September, two-thirds of all accidents occur. During this time, rescuers also provide daily duty at Brnik airport. The helicopter participated in 41% of operations this year, meaning that still 60% of operations are carried out classically.
About 70 percent of accidents occurred during mountaineering activities, the remaining 30 percent occurred during other activities in the mountain world or where mountain rescuers are best qualified for rescue with their technique and knowledge.
Iztok Butinar from Triglav National Park presented a mobile information point (modernly refurbished and equipped vehicle) at the end of the conference. The mobile info point came to life in May this year and tries to bring TNP closer to visitors on site in an interesting and original way. This winter it will also be dedicated to preventive tasks of raising awareness among mountain visitors for safer movement in winter conditions, as an upgrade or support on the ground for the existing website www.plazovi.info, where they try to locally present the dangers of snow avalanches in the TNP area.
