With its 32 teams, the Bulgarian Mountain Rescue Service (MRS) is a reliable partner to anyone in trouble in Bulgarian mountains.

The 650 qualified and highly-trained rescuers of the MRS are ready to help everyone at any time of the year.

In an interview with Time for Travel, the head of the MRS, Pencho Baboukchiev, speaks with pride of all the men and women under his command.

Winter, however beautiful it is, holds risks for inexperienced and over-confident skiers according to Baboukchiev.

“Almost 90 per cent of the incidents in the mountain during the winter season happen on the ski runs. We are talking about physical injuries resulting from irresponsible or reckless skiing”.

High speed, bad equipment and overestimating personal skills are the main reasons for most of these incidents. 

“Of course, I do not count incidents as a result of avalanches and people who get lost in the mountain,” he says, noting that many people do not follow the signs and like to ski off the marked areas.

This has become very typical for Bansko ski resort.

“There are very dangerous areas outside the marked ski runs and every time when someone decides to leave the runs, an incident is possible”.

In the 2005/06 winter season, MRS carried out 16 missions in search for lost people in Bansko. Fortunately, unlike in previous years, each mission was a success.

In most of the cases, people should blame themselves, Baboukchiev says.

“The ski runs in Bansko, for example, are very well marked and when people leave them, it means that they are doing so on purpose. Most of these people are snowboarders and they deliberately get off the tracks in search of an extreme experience. I would not say that this is wrong, because I know the feeling about skiing on fresh snow, but everyone who does so should accept the responsibility for whatever happens”.

By this Baboukchiev means that you must know where you are going in the first place. “You must examine the area before skiing and have your equipment checked to ensure that it is in order. You must also examine the weather forecast before going to the mountain. These are all very simple things but they can save lives.”

The development of Bansko in the past decade has led to an increased number of tourists, and this is the main reason for the increased number of accidents at the resort.
Before the development and investment boom, the MRS used to receive an average of 40 to 50 emergency calls. Today there are close to 600 every season. This is to be expected, according to Baboukchiev, because the resort has increased the length of its ski tracks in response to the demand.

The MRS recommends that those who intend skiing should visit the gym first to get to a level of fitness that will reduce the risk of muscle traumas.

Ski equipment should be carefully checked and adjusted to match the weight of the skier and his or her abilities.

Baboukchiev says that those who visit the mountain to hike and climb must use trained and qualified mountain guides.

“It is never the mountain that is responsible for the incident, it is the man who is unprepared”.

The Bulgarian Tourism Union has special courses for people who want to learn how to make their way in the mountains. The Bulgarian Alpine Club also provides such information and training. This organisation offer mountain trained guides.

“Bulgarians are not very used to hiring mountain guides before attempting routes on the mountain. Most of the guides are hired by foreigners whose services in such cases are usually part of a prepaid package”.            

When an incident happens, people should bear in mind that mountain rescue is not something like the emergency help in the city where you can make a phone call and a medic will come in minutes.

“Mountain rescue is a very long process and depending on the circumstances, it can go on for hours,” Baboukchiev says.

He recommends that everyone who decides to go out on the mountain, even for a day, should have a small emergency kit with medical supplies - medications, bandages, painkillers. “It would weigh no more than 600 grams and would hardly be a problem in your backpack”.

With such emergency kit, a person can give himself or a companion vital first aid if something goes wrong.

“We have so many cases when people call us for ridiculous reasons - complaining of headaches or toothaches. Of course we help them, but this is not what the MRS should being doing. I just want to say to people, be prepared at least for such small risk cases. When the problem is more serious, however, people can call the MRS non-stop emergency lines 088 1470; 048/1843; 02 963 2000 and help will be on the way.               

Insurance against mountain incidents is sensitive issue for Baboukchiev.

“I understand that this insurance against risk in the mountains cannot be mandatory, but people should know that it can save a lot of money”.

The present tariffs, when an accident happens in the mountain, are close to 290 leva while if you take out insurance for five days in the mountain it costs no more than six leva. More than 60 per cent of the people who had some kind of accident last year were insured, MRS statistics say.

“The rest, uninsured people, caused us trouble by simply refusing to pay for our service. Of course we never raise the financial side of our service when we are asked to help, because it is a sensitive issue, and this would be very inhuman, but the MRS also needs funds to survive and if people would only spend six leva at the beginning of the season there would be no problem,” he says.

The MRS, as part of the Bulgarian Red Cross organisation, does not receive much funding from the state and most of the equipment is paid for by the rescuers themselves. “It should be otherwise because the money for MRS comes from the income the state receives from tourism and we all know that tourism is one of the leading sectors of the Bulgarian economy,” Baboukchiev says.

Being a mountain rescuer is not a very pleasant job in terms of social life. A rescuer can be called at any time of the day and this inevitably causes problems with his family and employer.

“The respect that rescuers get is by all means rewarding, but it would be good if this respect is evidenced in financial help,” Baboukchiev smiles.