The Rescue and Mountain Intervention Groups of the Civil Guard (GREIM) carried out 609 interventions in Aragón last year, which is about 14% more than in 2023, when 535 aids were produced. The number of people rescued was also noticeably higher: there were 942 treated in 2024, 20% more than the previous year, when there were 781. Of the total number of people rescued, 451 were unharmed, 462 injured and 25 died, which means 8 more deaths than in 2023, when there were 17 deaths.
These are the main figures of the balance presented today by the government delegate in Aragón, Fernando Beltrán, and the accidental head of the Civil Guard Zone in Aragón, Javier Blanco, at an event in the Panticosa Spa that has been accompanied by a media exhibition and a rescue simulation.
By type of activity, 44% of aid workers were hiking, 13% were progressing on rough terrain and 9% suffered an accident while canyoning. 30% of the rescues were due to trips and falls, followed by different physical problems (17%) and vertical falls (10%).
The vast majority of the rescues during 2024 took place in the province of Huesca, with 585 performances, for 10 in Zaragoza and 14 in Teruel. The Aragonese Pyrenees remains the point where most interventions were carried out (84%), followed by the Sierra de Guara (11%) and the Iberian System (4%).
Along these lines, the rescue group that has carried out the most interventions has been that of Benasque, with 159 rescues and 284 assisted. Next, there are Boltaña (155 interventions to 227 people), Panticosa (104 performances and 144 attended), Huesca (86 and 143, respectively) and Jaca (81 and 101).
The government delegate and the accidental head of the Civil Guard Zone in Aragon have recalled that “no one is free from an accident in the mountains, be they tourists, occasional hikers or expert mountaineers” and have insisted on the importance of following the security councils: planning, equipping properly and acting prudently.
Fernando Beltrán pointed out that “in Aragón we have the great fortune to have a rescue system in the mountains that has been and continues to be a pioneering service and of reference in Spain and the rest of the world” and thanked the work carried out by the Civil Guard with “great effort, dedication and preparation”.