CONFERENCE HANDBOOK HOSTED BY www.pss-bg.bg RANGERGRIP 55 www.alpine-rescue.org12 Functions, 130 mm, Swiss Made www.alpine-rescue.org MAKERS OF THE ORIGINAL SWISS ARMY KNIFE | ESTABLISHED 1884 Contents ICAR 2016 WELCOME 02 08 A Warm Welcome Medical Commission Bulgarian Red Cross President Welcome 10 03 Mountain Rescue Service in Bulgaria MRS at BRC President Welcome 14 04 Conference Programme ICAR President Welcome 18 05 Hotel Halls Map Terrestrial Commission 06 19 Avalanche Commission Exhibition Floor Plan 07 20 Air Rescue Commission Sponsors & Exhibitors www.alpine-rescue.org / 1 A Warm Welcome/BRC President Welcome Mag. Pharm. Hristo Grigorov, Dr.H.C. Vesselin Ganchev President of Bulgarian Red Cross President of Mountain Rescue Service at BRC On behalf of the National Council of the Bulgarian Red Cross (BRC), I have the pleasure and the privilege to welcome all guests and delegates to the 68th Congress of the International Commission for Alpine Rescue in Bulgaria. In a few days the Bulgarian Red We consider the selection of the Cross, the largest and oldest humani- Bulgarian Red Cross Mountain Rescue tarian organization in the country, will Service to host the annual meeting of be celebrating 138 years since its ICAR a great honor and recognition for foundation. We are proud that Mountain the professionalism and international Rescue Service is an integral part of our prestige of the Bulgarian mountain organization and that together we resist rescuers. the trials and challenges of life, and I wish you successful work and I assure continue to help people. you that for the Bulgarian Red Cross Many people owe their lives to this forum is an excellent opportunity mountain rescuers, who wear the Red to discuss and bring the focus of public Cross emblem with dignity, because attention in Bulgaria to the issues of humanity in the mountains requires more safety and reduction of accidents in the than charity and compassion, more than mountains. simple desire to help - it requires sacrifice. 2 / www.alpine-rescue.org MRS at BRC President Welcome Vesselin Ganchev President of Mountain Rescue Service at BRC Distinguished Board Members of ICAR Dear members and friends of ICAR, fellow-rescuers, Welcome to Bulgaria and to Borovets - the oldest ski resort in Bulgaria! Welcome to the Rila National Park, assistance in the mountains because, the mountain with the highest peak on above all, we are led by humanity. the Balkan Peninsula! Prevention is a key word in our It is an honour and a privilege for all daily work, especially when we refer to of us at the Mountain Rescue Service children and youngsters who are often at the Bulgarian Red Cross to host the unaware of the risks in the mountains. annual meeting of ICAR. And as you all know, that the most In this dynamic and rapidly changing dangerous mountain is the one that we world, more and more people are underestimate. My message to people is turning towards nature and mountains, to respect mountains, and get prepared where they seek adventures, do in order to spend a pleasant time there sports, and relax. This trend leads to and to return home, safely. an increasing number of people being Last but not least, a big thank you exposed to risk factors, thus creating a to all the family members who keep higher percentage of incidents. But this supporting us - mountain rescuers, is exactly why our job is of the utmost during our unpredictable and demanding importance, and therefore we continue missions. Without them we wouldn’t be serving. what we are. Our Mountain Rescue Service relies Thank you to all my colleagues in fully on the constant, 24/7 availability of Bulgaria for their unremitting efforts. trained and equipped mountain rescuers, Dear friends, I wish you health, good the majority of them being volunteers, luck and successful work! God bless our and committing their time to render noble duty! www.alpine-rescue.org / 3 ICAR President Welcome Franz Stämpfli Gebhard Barbisch President of ICAR President of the Terrestrial Rescue Commission In the name of the ICAR Executive Board I would like to welcome you in Borovets Bulgaria. I’m looking forward meeting you during our annual convention and leading through our assembly of delegates. For the first time in its 68-year-history, Our number of members is steadily the International Commission for Alpine increasing. This is the success of the Rescue (ICAR) is coming to Bulgaria for good work, which is done in our bodies, its annual congress, hosted by the Red especially in the technical commissions. Cross of Bulgaria (BRC). We are very A big thank you goes to our Commission happy to be your guests in Bulgaria. Presidents, our Executive Board and our Our last congress took place in Killarney, office. Ireland. We keep the celebrating of the Like every year, the pre-conference 50th anniversary of Mountain Rescue workshop day offers interesting Ireland (MRI) deep in our memories. topics. The presidents of the different Thanks again to our Irish friends. commissions have prepared a perfect The work in the ICAR Executive program. I hope that you can participate, Board is very positive and the members give your thoughts and bring your input have great experience and are highly at the different posts or in the various professional. Our mission says: ICAR sessions. provides a platform for mountain rescue Honor where honor is due: The and related organizations to disseminate preparation and the organization of knowledge with the prime goal of this event was first class and the whole improving mountain rescue services and team in Bulgaria should accept our great their safety. It’s a worldwide organization respect. that respects its members and promotes Thank you all for the great work and international cooperation. I’m very pleased to meet you here. 4 / www.alpine-rescue.org Terrestrial Commission Gebhard Barbisch President of the Terrestrial Rescue Commission Dear Members of the Terrestrial Rescue Commission, dear Friends of ICAR and dear much appreciated Exhibitors! This year the convention will be I am sure, it will be very interesting for organized by the Mountain Rescue all of us, when our friends present us their Service at the BRC. They have worked way of solving this problem. Let’s learn hard to prepare a perfect environment from the experience of all participants, for our convention. Intensive cooperation documented in their presentations or and the willingness to work together will shown on practical demonstrations. Our be the basis for a successful meeting in goal should be not to do the same error Borovets. twice. Eliminating all human errors in This year’s practical session is rescue operations may not be realistic, organized and supervised by the as we would have to stop all our missions Avalanche Rescue Commission. They just to avoid any possible errors. prepared interesting workshops together However, we should strive to extend with the other commissions. I am sure, the time between our errors. the demos and workshops which will be I am very much looking forward offered to you are beneficial to all of us. to meeting all of you again and I am This year’s main topic is „Search sure, that we will have a congress with function - Improving the Search before the good presentations and many positive Rescue“. All of us know how important a discussions and constructive interactions, good situation analysis is. This will be the so that we all can go home at the end basis of a good and hopefully successful with a full basket of new knowledge for search operation. the next search operation. www.alpine-rescue.org / 5 Avalanche Commission Dominique Létang Patrick Fauchère President of the ICAR Avalanche Rescue Commission President of the Air Rescue Commission Chief of the French avalanche association (ANENA) Dear Members, Dear Friends, I am looking forward to seeing all of you in Borovets. I am very excited to discover a part of the Bulgarian mountains and meet the Bulgarian rescuers! In our commission we worked hard field in South Tyrol (from 5th to 8th of since the latest congress in Ireland. The May), and the prevention working group recommendation concerning “slalom held several “skype” meetings and is probing” was definitely adopted by the continuing to help all of us with the aim committee board in January. During the of improving prevention tools. year we organized several workshops Regarding the congress in Borovets, gathering international experts: one we have implemented some relevant in Davos concerning RECCO search workshops for the pre-conference day, strategies (under the umbrella of SLF and in the field (I hope we will have good the avalanche commission), another one climatic conditions!) with a system of concerning “Best practices in avalanche rotation between the different workshops rescue” (Stubai, from 25th to 29th of April), (as we did in Lake Tahoe). I am pretty which purpose is to obtain a worldwide sure you will appreciate! standardization of strategies, techniques I wish all of you, the commission and methods of avalanche SAR. The members, the organizers, the developers sub-commission of dog-handlers held an and the manufacturers a really rich interesting and serious meeting on the congress. 6 / www.alpine-rescue.org Air Rescue Commission Patrick Fauchère President of the Air Rescue Commission WELCOME TO BULGARIA! Dear members of the Air Rescue Commission, dear sponsors, exhibitors and manufacturers, dear guests and dear friends of the ICAR, Together with Bulgarian Mountain of all involved parties will be analyzed. Rescue Service to the Red Cross we are The aim is to find a generic, sound and looking forward meeting you and sharing safe procedure to excavate and / or with you some time during our annual extricate the patient while the rescue conference held this year in Borovets.