Yet again the Guardia Civil mountain-rescue service (Greim) has been busy rescuing snowboarders and skiers up on Sierra Nevada.

These ‘victims’ had decided to leave the ski slopes and strike off piste into the Barranco de San Juan area of the sierra. Two of the rescues took several hours and the third was called off because finally a couple managed to find their way out thanks to a skier.

The last of the rescue missions was on Tuesday when a snowboarder, a young Romanian man, phoned for help at 16.20h because he couldn’t get out of the said barranco. Two team members set out equipped with snowshoes and a harness in order for the three of them to make it up the side of the snow-covered barranco. One of the 2-man team carried his snowboard for him.

The previous day something similar had happened more or less in the same spot. A 49-year-old woman from Toledo ended up trapped in the said barranco. She had tried to get to the Pista de El Águila. There are two tracks leading to it but they were closed that day because of snowfall so she decided to find her own way there. She kept going down and down, finding it strange that she hadn’t come across any skiers

Her walk ended quite some way below the level of the Refugio de San Francisco. She finally phoned Cetursa and they sent a slope worker on a snow scooter to find her, but he had no luck, so the Greim were called out at 17.00h.

It took the two team members despatched about an hour to find her, thanks to having received her location via Whatsapp. However, it took three hours to make their way back up again using crampons.

Finally, just before receiving the call out for this woman, they received another call for help from a foreign couple who had also ended up lost in the barranco. Fortunately, they hadn’t descended as far as the woman and came across a skier who helped them find their way out, so the rescue mission was cancelled

Editorial comment: Yes, that’s why the Greims exist and why they get paid; to rescue people, but each time they do they are risking their own lives, which we should not lose sight of.

(News/Noticias: Sierra Nevada, Granada, Andalucia)