17th European Cave Rescue Meeting, 19-22 September, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia & Herzegovnia is a beautiful country, with dramatic scenery, where East meets West, and this year was the host of the 17th European Cave Rescue meeting. Cave rescuers from across Europe and beyond descended upon the medieval town of Mostar, famous for its sweeping stone bridge, to promote the exchange of knowledge and experience in the field of cave rescue.
The meeting was organised by the Association of Mountain Rescue Service in Bosnia and Herzegovina on behalf of the European Cave Rescue Association (ECRA), and was based at Mostar University. Pre-meeting activities from caving, climbing and visits to tourist destinations were available to participants to introduce them to this wonderful country, and provide a good opportunity to get to know fellow cave rescuers.
The conference provided a really good balance of practical sessions, presentations and socialising. The destination for the Friday was the Podruzje Canyon, which provided plenty of hands-on practice in stunning countryside, and the sessions ranged from first aid and medical, passage enlargement, cave diving and rope rescue procedures and stretcher handling with minimal people and kit.
A key part of the presentations was first response management, and BCRC officers presented their experiences of major international rescues from both a support and medical perspective, and also discussed ECRA’s role in incident management. Underground communications was covered in depth, looking at the various communication systems currently available, as well as equipment updates considering various prototypes of helmets for stretchers. Experiences from recent rescues were shared, along with lessons learned, and more unusual presentations, such as the role of battlefield acupuncture in a cave rescue environment provided interesting discussions. Like all cave rescue conferences, much of the team building and learning comes from meeting friends, old and new, and making plans to meet again in 2025.
A huge thanks goes to the organisers of this year’s meeting for their excellent organisation, the wonderful warm welcome and simply going above and beyond. Hvala!
Emma Porter,
BCRC Secretary