There is an interesting article in the Dauphine Libere today which has been covered on other news channels which could have implications for Mountain rescue of ski tourers and climbers.

Pascal Pertusa who runs the Drome SDIS (Departmental Rescue and Fire Services - they organize and fund a lot of mountain rescue operations) has asked the state prosecutor to start an action against two cavers for reckless endangerment.

Last week they rescued a caver trapped by rising water in the Drome. The operation cost the department 25,000 euros. Mr Pertusa says the two experienced cavers went for five days of explorations in the grotte du Chuat.. One of the cavers exited the caves after 2 days, saw the water had rising and couldn’t contact his friend and decided to go home. It was only on Friday he contacted the fire brigade.

His friend was finally found 230 meters underground on Saturday night. Mr Pertusa says they knew there was a risk of rain and flooding in the cave system. The department has 60 rescue workers involved in the operation.

Okay there are some exceptional circumstances such as the delay in alerting the rescue services but it seems that the pair’s experience played a major role in this decision. One can imagine experienced backcountry skiers being sued if they go out at risk 4 or if the weather closes in and they get into difficulties.

It is an action I’ll be watching with interest. The rescue has an interesting side story. One of the rescue workers came from Laval across the valley from me. On Sunday morning, while he was involved in the operation, his house caught fire, the fire rapidly spread to the neighbouring houses including one owned by a local ski tourer and ex-wife of a friend. Both the rescue worker and my friend’s ex have lost everything they owned in the blaze.

http://www.ledauphine.com/le-speleologue-avait-ete-secouru-les-pompiers-portent-plainte-ils-ont-mis-leur-vie-et-celle-des-secouristes-en-danger--@/index.jspz?chaine=85&article=215089

In a followup the French National Firebrigade Federation has said it is completely opposed to any prosecution saying that it “it calls the notion of free rescue services into question”. The SDIS is reconsidering its position.

Thanks for keeping us up on this sort of thing.
I don’t really understand how rescuers decide what to do in various situations—I’m glad if they help save somebody’s life, but sometimes I could also understand if in some situations they decide it was not worth continuing to try.

Something I feel closer to is the question of the responsibility of backcountry-adventure partners for each other—and what the definition of “partner” is.

Twice I was on multi-day ski tours in Europe with a larger party, and in the middle I decided that conditions were turning unfavorable and that I did not want to continue the originally planned week-long itinerary. So I exited to the valley voluntarily—and the trip leader and the majority of the party voluntarily continued with their planned itinerary.

In both cases about three days later the continuing party got into trouble. In one case they got trapped in a hut by a big snowstorm and they all missed their flights home. In the other case they were rescued by helicopter. In both cases I did not hear about the outcome until afterward.

My feeling is that in both cases, after they and I voluntarily chose different courses, we were no longer partners. I feel it would have been very odd for me to have phoned after I arrived down in the valley to tell the rescue service that I disagreed with the others’ assessment of conditions, and that the others _might_ get into trouble three days later.

On the other hand, in another situation I _did_ call mountain rescue for friends who I was _not_ out skiing with—because I knew their plan, and knew they had strong motivation to have gotten out by a specific time. But then five minutes after I’d called, my friends contacted me and told me they were just fine. (Fortunately the mountain rescue service was happy to learn that, and did not require me to fill out lots of paperwork.)

Ken