Potes (Cantabria) (EFE).- From the heart of the Picos de Europa National Park, the agents of the Special Rescue and Mountain Intervention Group (Greim) of the Civil Guard watch over lovers of outdoor sports, preparing to intervene at any time in caves, mountains or ravines.
While they practice climbing exercises, paying attention to their cell phones in case there is an emergency, this group tells EFE how they prepare physically and emotionally.
Based at the Civil Guard post in Potes, the eleven people who make up the Greim have the mission of helping anyone who needs help in the natural environment, especially in mountains, ravines or caves.
Some interventions, which oscillate between 25 and 30 per year, and which vary over the months.
They also depend on the type of tourism, such as speleology in the Ramales de la Victoria area, or skiing at the Alto Campoo resort in winter.
For this, the members of the Greim must be physically prepared to face complex rescues in various environments.
For this reason, daily activity is made up of marches to reconnoiter the terrain, climbing to maintain a good physical level, speleology, ski mountaineering when there is snow or rescue and self-relief practices.
In addition to the “daily” work, the Greim de Potes is also deployed this year in the region of Liébana for the celebration of the Lebaniego Jubilee Year.
Interventions that ‘mark’
However, not everything is training, since, they confess, some interventions “mark” and many times the mental factor is more difficult to overcome than the physical one.
As explained to EFE by the person in charge of this group, Sergeant Jorge López, the emotional preparation “is growing.”
But the group learns to manage it “as it faces these situations.”
“That post-rescue conversation, between colleagues, where what has been experienced is shared, those hard and emotionally complex moments. Everything is released and the shared sorrows are more bearable ”, he points out.
Of course, “ideally” is that no one is rescued, so he asks people who go to the mountains to follow the advice “dictated by common sense.”
By Pablo Ayerbe Caselles.