Alpine Rescue Angels: 159 rescues in one year: a record in remote areas.

An average of one rescue every two days, rescuing 167 people a year. These are some of the numbers the Sardinian Alpine and Speleological Rescue Service recorded in 2025.

Among the reasons that triggered the rescue operation 159 times, in hard-to-reach areas, were illnesses or injuries resulting from falls or slips. Mountain and Speleological Rescue personnel also played a crucial role in the 118 helicopter rescue operations, which involved recovering injured people or accident victims in otherwise nearly inaccessible areas.

As emerges from the statistics of interventions throughout the island, the area where there have been the most rescue operations is Ogliastra (40), followed by Sassari (36). Immediately behind is Nuoro (30) and then Cagliari with 22 as well as Southern Sardinia. Oristano has seen the activation of the Sardinian Alpine and Speleological Rescue on nine occasions.

May is the month with the highest number of rescues, 24: then come September and November with 19. Foreigners are often criticized, indicated as the most imprudent, but the numbers say otherwise: 129 people rescued are Italian. Then there are the Germans (15), the French (8) and so on those of other nationalities. Hikers The highest percentage of interventions takes place to rescue hikers (64 percent of cases).

Then there are mountain bikers (11 rescue operations, 6.6 percent of the total). Sixty-three percent of those rescued are male. The age group that led to the greatest number of interventions by the Sardinian Alpine and Speleological Rescue Service was the 50-60 age group (38 operations performed). Next came the 60-70 age group, and in third place were the 30-40 age group.

On 144 occasions, the intervention was triggered for rescue operations in difficult terrain, 13 for searches for missing persons, and 2 for operations in speleological areas. Once again, a remarkable effort, even on the island, by the 165 specialized mountain rescue technicians and the 83 speleological rescue technicians.

(Unioneonline)