Holiday Magazine 2023

20 Zeit Time zu to

20 Zeit Time zu to bleiben stay … FÜR TRADITIONEN … FOR SLY LYNXES RESCUE IN THE WILD Having a charged mobile with you during a hike and stay where you are after an emergency call can save lives and facilitates the rescue after an accident, tells Bernd Wagner, Head of the Mountain Rescue Wernigerode. BERND WAGNER MOUTAIN RESCUE What are the most common reasons why you are called to an operation site? In most cases we are called by hikers who have sustained injuries to their lower extremities. Wrist injuries also happen and in winter leg fractures from skiing. Of course we can‘t forget the group of mountain bikers who often get injuries by falls and people who contact the coordination centre because of circulation problems. How many rescue missions do you have per month? That is difficult to generalize. Until May this year we were called 25 times-only for the region of Wernigerode. Last year we had a total of 61 missions. Sometimes we move out several times a week and then not at all in the following two weeks. Have the kind of missions changed in the last years? Do people maybe get less careful? Some incidents happen again and again. A common example is the Brocken: people still hike to the Brocken and don‘t have any clue of the extreme weather situations up there. Accordingly they are not dressed properly and hypothermia is the result. How do you become a mountain rescuer and what skills should one have? Best prerequisites to successfully pass an education as a mountain rescuer are enthusiasm and a certain portion of curiosity. Besides that one should like to be out in the nature, to hike or to climb. The education itself then takes 2 to 3 years and includes a summer and winter rescue exam. During 20 21 the education a certain fitness level is required of course. Then there is also a theoretical part in which you deal, for example, with nature protection, knot techniques and emergency medicine. How do your people know the area around the Brocken and Wernigerode so well? Do you learn that during the education? One should bring a little sense of orientation in any case. This is not for everyone, but it is not difficult to learn. In fact, practice makes perfect. When a new fellow joins us, we take him out with us. So he quickly gets an idea of the terrain, the paths and the striking points which we approach repeatedly. Some concepts you have to simply memorize or learn and so the radius enlarges with the time. When you have found the person seeking help, what happens next? The range of tasks of the Mountain Rescue is the saving and rescuing of people from rough terrain as well as the first aid for patients until the rescue team arrives. We have the necessary technique and all-terrain-vehicles. After the removal of the injured the transfer to the ambulance takes place. Alternatively, we can take an emergency physician to the scene of the accident. What is the greatest challenge during your missions? In any case the uncertainty- what is in store for us and what can I do to help the person concerned. Already during the approach you go through all possible scenarios: what things do you have to keep ready, will you need additional staff, how severe is the injury? All such thoughts go through your head. But until now-thanks to the good education of our mountain rescuers-everything turned out well. * * Around the cliffs good surefootedness is important HIKING-TIPS THAT SHOULD NOT MISS WHEN HIKING: POCKET KNIFE SUFFICIENT DRINKS AND FOOD GOOD HIKING SHOES RAIN GEAR * HIKING MAPS FOR ORIENTATION Special vehicles guide the Mountain rescue to the operation site CONTACT MOUNTAIN RESCUE HARZ: German Red Cross-Wernigerode Standby Wernigerode Phone +49 (0) 39 43 - 55 34 60 www.bergwacht-wernigerode.de In urgent emergencies call 112! Check the current weather situation! schierke-am-brocken.de/ sehen/brocken-nationalpark/ ©Polyluchs Kreativagentur ©Bergwacht Harz ©Polyluchs Kreativagentur LIFEHACK ESTIMATE THE SUNSET How much time is still left until the sun goes down and it gets dark? Stretch out your hand so that the upper edge of the forefinger is directly under the sun and the small finger touches the horizon. The sun wanders a finger deeper every quarter of an hour. If it‘s right above your forefinger you have an hour left. 263 kph was the highest measured wind speed 3,80 m was the highest measured snow height 300 days a year it partially disappears in the fog The Brocken Plateau in an inversion weather situation-a spectacle of nature