A successful premiere in South America

The following article is a translation from a story published in Forum Alpinum (the magazine of the Swiss Society of Mountain Medicine). It charts the organisation of April’s inaugural International Mountain Sports Training Course organised by the UIAA and Federación Argentina de Ski y Andinismo (FASA) in Bariloche, Argentina. The event was covered extensively in the following UIAA article (with links to associated video content).

Given the success of the project, the UIAA is hopeful that future editions of the course can be held in different parts of the world. The article below is written by Dr Urs Hefti, UIAA Medical Commission President, whose insight, passion and dedication helped conceive the course. An interview with Urs Hefti and fellow UIAA MedCom member Matthias Hilty follows.

Article from Forum Alpinum:

For the first time, the UIAA MedCom and the UIAA Management Board were guests in Argentina and took the opportunity to take advantage of the interregional and international exchange. The aim was to bring together the various medical players, rescue organisations and mountaineers, to exchange views on medical topics and to get to know the rescue organisations better. In short: to learn from each other and find out “how to do what and why” and thus incorporate new findings into new projects.

The “Cordillera de los Andes” (Andes) is the largest intercontinental mountain massif on earth with an incredible south-north extension of over 7,000 kilometers. With over a hundred six-thousand-meter peaks and countless five-thousand-meter peaks as well as all climate zones – from eternal ice to tropical forest – the Andes are the largest mountain range outside of Asia. The Andes are also known for their Andean civilizations and the Inca Empire. In addition, the potato cultivated today, now one of the world’s staple foods, originated in the Andes.

The course started with a day of lectures and panel discussions to explain and debate the current state of mountain and high-altitude medicine. The effects of climate change on mountaineering and rescue were also discussed. In addition to various “traditional high-altitude medicine topics”, women-specific areas such as cycle-optimized training and women at altitude were also addressed in captivating presentations.

On the second day, the focus was on presenting the three regional rescue organizations of El Chaltén, Aconcagua and Bariloche as well as their local characteristics, problems and future challenges.

On the third day, the local rescue organization Cax Bariloche was able to showcase its skills with various demonstrations and new, innovative rescue equipment.

Almost one hundred participants, mainly from Argentina, Chile, Brazil and other South American countries, were able to exchange ideas and update their knowledge with highly motivated speakers and workshop presenters.

Interviews in Forum Alpinum 

Urs Hefti, as President of MedCom UIAA and member of the SGGM, you were the main person responsible for this course. What motivated you to organise such a course in the first place?
Thanks to FASA’s invitation to the UIAA to hold its annual meeting in Argentina, I was finally able to realise the long-standing idea of holding a training course with members of UIAA MedCom and local experts in the field of outdoor and mountain medicine on the one hand, and with other UIAA experts, such as SafeCom, on the other.

There are so many exciting topics, and this exchange with doctors, rescuers and mountaineers from the immensely large, fascinating and challenging southern hemisphere was simply an opportunity we had to seize in order to get such a course off the ground.

What were the biggest organizational challenges?
The organising committee didn’t know each other or see each other in person, but we worked out the entire concept via Zoom, discussed it and sorted out all the details.

It was certainly a great challenge to take into account all the regional and cultural peculiarities over a distance of more than 12,000 km.

The election of a new President in Argentina at the end of 2023 was interesting and particularly challenging for the course, as the uncertainty about the political course and the impact on finances led to an organisational break of several weeks. And, the election caused the Argentine peso to depreciate incredibly, and the loss of purchasing power amounted to 50% when the course was held! This naturally and unfortunately led to enormous additional costs, especially for the organisation and the participants.

In addition to the lectures, you organized panel discussions on various topics. Which topic impressed you the most?
The incredible motivation of the organisers and participants was impressive. Everyone worked voluntarily and contributed to the great success of the event. And everyone was involved in the lectures, workshops and practical work right to the end. Unbelievable. From the point of view of mountain medicine, the contributions of the El Chaltén rescue organisation were certainly impressive. In Chaltén, the nearest helicopter is 500km away. It rarely comes, which means that many very long and technically demanding terrestrial rescues are still carried out today. This is done by volunteer rescuers, and the local doctor has also been doing an incredible job for years. She is the only doctor who starts a lysis on site, and then accompanies the patient for hours in an ambulance over bumpy tracks to a hospital under these conditions.

It was also impressive to learn about the problems a local climbing boom has on a village community and ecology like El Chaltén. The village was only founded on 12.10.1985 in order to “legalise” Argentina’s territorial claims against Chile. There are now probably over three thousand people living in the village, and together with the tourists, a small town is created every season – without the corresponding infrastructure and space. This development is the cause of many problems and the future of the starting point for climbing the world-famous classics such as Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre is unclear.

What did the UIAA contribute to this congress?
In addition to the organisation, the UIAA was primarily able to support the event financially. The various commissions also provided various speakers from Europe and Brazil. From the SGGM side, I was joined by Matthias Hilty as SGGM-SAC delegate and Claude Raillard as course mountain guide for the SGGM Wilderness & Expedition Medicine course. We were also able to provide many basic materials for the course such as videos (the production was also made possible a few years ago thanks to the support of the SGGM/ SAC), medical recommendations and a pharmacy. At the same time, we were also able to refer to other important UIAA MedCom work such as the Peak Advice Papers. We were also very pleased that a new MedCom member, Mijel Lotfi, as a doctor and mountain guide, was able to complete the paper on Aconcagua right for the start of the course.

Are there other similar projects in the future? And could you even imagine SGGM getting involved?
It would be a dream come true if we as SGGM could run a similar course as an organization in a rich country, for example in Africa. I think that there should be enough doctors within the SSGM who would volunteer their time and expertise (and also a financial contribution) to run a similar course. Volunteer work gives a great deal in return and should be inspiration enough to organize or participate in one-off events without payment. The SGGM could also make its expertise available to less saturated and still young climbing communities.

Matthias Hilty, you took part in the course in Bariloche as an SGGM delegate. What were your most formative impressions?
The training course in Bariloche showed me in an impressive way what can be achieved with determination and a positive attitude. The close cooperation with people from all corners of the world is a good example of the diversity that is so important within the UIAA. MedCom has succeeded in maintaining a positive attitude at all times, which is why this course has been such a great success. As the umbrella organization for mountaineering associations, the UIAA is in the unique position of being able to find a common denominator, be it in medical, organizational or safety issues. And for me, that is precisely what was so formative about it – that the mountaineering organizations from all over Argentina – from Aconcagua to northern Patagonia to El Chaltén – all apparently came together again for the first time in many years to help shape the course in Bariloche and benefit from it at the same time. And so the contributions of the Brazilian UIAA delegates in the area of safety, the contributions from Lithuania, France, Germany and Switzerland on the medical topics have impressively combined to form a concise tour d’horizon of all aspects of mountaineering.

It was your first time in Argentina. Can you say something about the country and the people?
It was actually my first trip to Argentina, or rather to Patagonia. I can only say that I have rarely experienced such impressive nature as I did there. This certainly has something to do with the fact that we went straight from the European spring to the Patagonian fall. The interplay between the colors of the vegetation and the first snow was incredible to experience and feel first-hand. It is precisely such contrasts that run symbolically through the whole country: on the one hand, Argentina’s great wealth of resources and proud history, and on the other, the current major problems with inflation, which is causing the population a great deal of trouble. Just as the country stretches across more than half the length of the continent of South America and stretches in the opposite direction from the Andes to the coast across contrasting climatic zones, the positive attitude of the people is just as impressive in the face of the fact that we do not know exactly what the material value of their income and possessions will be tomorrow. On the outward journey, I was able to make a stop with Dr. Edul, the head of an intensive care unit in one of the public hospitals in Buenos Aires, who showed me around her station. Despite the scarcity of resources at the clinic, she finds the time and energy to pursue her passion for research into microcirculation and to inspire young people to do so. In Bariloche, I was very impressed by the conversation with Dr. Carolina Codo, who not only set up the rescue chain in El Chaltén, but also the health care system in the now rapidly growing village. Her experiences would fill an exciting book. And, of course, I was also able to learn from those who really know how to drink mate!

You also had just enough time to climb some routes around Bariloche in the busy program. How was the rock?
Fantastic! Overwhelmingly beautiful. Of course, this also had a lot to do with my wonderful climbing colleagues from the UIAA. The surroundings in Bariloche are truly incomparable. An interplay of lakes, forests, steppe and high alpine regions with granite peaks as far as the eye can see. There are a multitude of climbing crags around Bariloche, some obvious, some somewhat hidden, and the rock is very varied and a joy to climb in every place we visited. We were very lucky that we were able to rely on comprehensive advice from the locals when choosing the areas… For me, it’s only a complete trip when I’ve been able to touch and experience the rock in a foreign area, in a country that’s new to me, and maybe even leave a drop or two of sweat behind. Just as it should be when climbing.

Do you also think that UIAA MedCom should get involved in other similar training courses?
The UIAA kills two birds with one stone with such courses. In addition to the regular Zoom meetings, the commissions meet once a year for a face-to-face meeting, each time at a different location around the world. On the one hand, the organization of such a course by the UIAA allows the expertise available in the commissions to be used for the benefit of the local community. On the other hand, it creates a deep connection with local experts and enthusiasts, and this is precisely what MedCom ultimately thrives on. The friendships made, together with the presence and visibility on site, are ultimately invaluable aids for the success of the UIAA mission: supporting mountaineers in all aspects of this beautiful activity.

Would such courses also be something in which the SGGM could participate in some way?
Switzerland and the SGGM are certainly in a good position internationally to exert a positive influence by supporting such projects. In my opinion, increased cooperation both in training on the international stage and in research in the field of high-altitude medicine and physiology – where the SGGM also has a solid repertoire of supported research expeditions – would be a good choice of priorities for the further development of the SGGM. True to the motto “by the community, for the community”. I am already looking forward to the next iteration of the “International Mountain Sports Training Course”.

Further information

https://www.theuiaa.org/mountain-medicine/aconcagua/
https://www.theuiaa.org/sharing-knowledge- an-inspiring-first-mountain- sports-training-course/

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