Air Rescue organisation celebrates 50 years

12th June 2008

PGHM - Chamonix - Celebrates 50 years

Air Rescue organisation celebrates 50 years

Mountain rescue services are an essential (and obviously life saving) part of mountain life. The Chamonix Valley mountain rescue is run by a special unit of the Gendarmes, the PGHM.

This Saturday the PGHM celebrates 50th years of service with a fun day. There will be official ceremonies in Chamonix, before moving over to an Open day at the helipad in Les Bois. The Open Day is now in it's fourth year now and is highly recommended.

In the morning there are aerial demonstration starts from 10:30, with both the civil helicopter (the older red one) and the Gendarme chopper (the fancy blue one) showing how they can rescue people stuck in trees and injured skiers - even the avalanche dog takes part!

Chamonix Mont Blanc Helicopters also gives an entertaining demo of precision flying, and dumping a load of water, used for extinguishing fires.

The ground demo starts at 11:30, with close up demos of crevasse rescues, using transceivers and so on. There's also a chance to get a close look at the equipment used and the helicopters as well as meeting the rescue team.

The programme is then repeated in the afternoon from 14:00.

So if you are in the area, head down for a fun and informative day.

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