Station 03 · Val d’Orca · 1,412 m
We climb in when the mountain closes.
A volunteer rescue team covering 640 km² of the Orca massif. Forty-one members, two search dogs and a winch helicopter on call, every hour of the year.
01 · The first eleven minutes
How a callout runs
- 00:00
The call
You dial 112 and say “mountain rescue”. The operator patches you to our duty controller, who stays on the line and pulls your position from the phone.
- 00:04
The page
Every member within reach gets one pager tone. The first six who acknowledge become the hasty team; the rest load the vehicles.
- 00:11
Moving
The hasty team leaves the station with medical kit, rope and a hound. If the ceiling allows, the helicopter lifts from Cerva at the same minute.
- On scene
The carry-out
Most rescues end on a stretcher, not a winch. A carry-out from 2,400 m takes twelve people and four hours, whatever the weather does.
02 · Winter 2025 to summer 2026
One season, in four numbers
- 312
- callouts last season
- 7 min
- median, page to moving
- 41
- volunteers, 2 search dogs
- 0
- invoices sent, ever
03 · The calls we would rather not get
Before you go up
Half of last season’s callouts started with a walker who was fine at noon. None of this is advice you have not heard. All of it would have kept us at the station.
- 01Tell someone your route and the time you will be back.
- 02Carry a charged phone and a headtorch, even for a lunch walk.
- 03Read the 08:00 avalanche bulletin, not yesterday’s.
- 04Turn around at the time you set, not at the summit.
Volunteer intake opens 3 November.
Two winters of training, a medical course, and every second weekend on the rota. No one is paid. Nobody leaves early.
Ask about the next intake