Security above all – literally

At first we were a first aid team (which is of course required on an expedition the size of this one). But soon enough we saw our area of responsibility grow, and one day in March we decided to change names to the security team, because by then we were in charge of all the necessary security arrangements for the whole expedition.

That is; whatever happens on the wall or in the base camp, we had better foreseen it and made a plan for how to handle it. Weather phenomena, fires, accidents, contagious diseases, you name it. It suddenly feels like in 10 days, with 50 hungry people and lots of valuable equipment there are quite a few possibilities of what can go wrong.

But we set about, asking all the different teams to analyze the specific risks they are facing. This we found was a good way to not only find out about hazards that we would not ever have thought of (camera lenses falling down the mountain wall in people’s heads, failing internet connections, insects invading the food stock etc.), but also turn everybody’s attention towards security and think about what precautions to take before anything happens. Because that is the problem with security, it is not enough that a few people in a security team has thought about it, EVERYBODY has to be constantly aware of it if we are to avoid dangerous situations.

We have since gathered all security related information in a security plan, made treatment guide lines, evacuation plans, lists of medicines to bring, just to mention a few things. In a way we hope all this is completely unnecessary information that will be of no use during our stay in La Grave. But IF anything would happen – we will gladly be there prepared with knowledge, wound dressings and the ability to react fast. Bring it on!

Manda, nursing student
Chride, emergency medical worker and master student
Nickan, nurse, teacher and the team supervisor