The third edition of the "Altius Three" mountain rescue exercise of the "Taurinense" alpine brigade, organized and conducted by the 3rd Alpine regiment of Pinerolo, with the participation of the other units of the brigade, together with teams of the Piedmontese service of National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps and the Guardia di Finanza, as well as specialized "Speleosub" units for lake rescue and the Army, Finance and 118 helicopters. The different intervention scenarios tested the interoperability capabilities between different assets that deal with rescue in mountain. This synergy materialized during the exercise itself, when part of the assets contributed to the search for a lost hiker found lifeless in a stream near Condove.
After an intense period of preparation, conducted in compliance with the current legislation for the containment of Covid-19, the operators of military mountain rescue teams of the "Taurinense" alpine brigade - in addition to the 3rd Alpine regiment there were in fact teams of the 2nd of Cuneo, of the 9th of L'Aquila and of the 1st land artillery regiment of Fossano - and the teams of the Piedmontese Alpine and Speleological Rescue, of the Guardia di Finanza and of the Civil Protection, carried out tests of complex interventions in the lake environment, on the wall and in the gorge, using specific means and equipment.
In the Lago Grande di Avigliana, during the first phase of the exercise, a BV206S7 tracked vehicle carried out an amphibious movement on the surface of the lake, an activity necessary to keep the training levels of the amphibious piloting personnel high. A special small boat of the 32 ° sapper engineers regiment of the Taurinense, then loaded the first of the military mountain rescue teams, who then rescued a missing person. Training in this type of use allows the military to intervene in the event of flood events, guaranteeing the ability to overcome obstacles and interruptions to the road system both through the special "all-terrain" vehicles supplied, supported by medium-capacity helicopters.
The following exercise saw the “speleosub” teams intervene in the rescue of a diver in difficulty, who was then recovered - by winch - by a 118 helicopter.
The activities continued on the rocky walls of Caprie, where nine Alpine Rescue Teams - 6 military teams, 2 from the Alpine and Speleological Rescue and one from the Guardia di Finanza - were landed on the crest by a CH47S of the 1st Army Aviation Regiment “Antares”, using special approach techniques. Therefore, different types of exercises were carried out, from the wall to the deep crevasse, simulating the recovery of injured persons using special stretchers, ground and helicopter winches and which was followed by a further exercise to search for missing persons in "gorge", the deep gorges with vertical walls in which a stream flows, conducted by specialists from Piedmontese Alpine and Speleological Rescue with the help of the Alpini of the "Terzo".
A final test - purely military - saw a team of rescuers from the 3rd Alpini intervene, in full combat set-up, in the recovery of a wounded person, abseiling down to lead the infiltration in the intervention area and coordinating the subsequent collection of the injured person by helicopters from the 34th AVES “Toro” permanent detachment in Venaria.
The comparison and exchange of experiences and information on technical procedures, begun in previous editions of the "Altius", represents an added value that aims to make the military mountain rescue teams, at the disposal of every multifunction command, fully "inter-operable", putting them "in a system" with the helicopter assets of the Army Aviation, the Guardia di Finanza and 118.
The commander of the Alpine troops, general of the army corps Claudio Berto, expressed words of pride for the professionalism shown during the exercise and, addressing the military, he shared with them some considerations on the importance of always having efficient units, trained, flexible and specialized who are able to operate in an environmental context characterized by verticality as well as to intervene at very short notice for every need of use.
The final day of the exercise was attended by the regional councilor Paolo Ruzzola, representing the President of the Piedmont Region of the regional extraordinary commissioner for Covid19 dr. Vincenzo Coccolo, the president of Piedmontese Alpine and Speleological Rescue Luca Giaj Arcota, the director of the Civil Protection of the Turin prefecture dott. Gianfranco Parente and the commander of the alpine brigade "Taurinense" Brigadier General Davide Scalabrin.
Le military mountain rescue teams - born with the specific purpose of supporting soldiers in mountain training - they are made up of soldiers with specific qualifications in the skiing, mountaineering, weather-snow and health sectors. These qualifications make them a peculiar structure of the Alpine troops of paying employment in a wide spectrum of emergencies and able to work in concert with other mountain rescue realities.
