Benasque.- .- The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, praised this Wednesday, in Benasque (Huesca), the work, dedication and vocation of service “exemplary” of the specialists of the Mountain Service of the Civil Guard, who in 2025 carried out 1,210 rescues, the largest figure in history, half of them in the Pyrenean area. The Rescue and Mountain Intervention Groups (GREIM) of Benasque and Boltaña, in Huesca, concentrated 25 percent of all the performances.

“Every intervention requires effort, professional competence and dedication that deserve the greatest institutional and societal gratitude. They save lives where no one else can do it, even putting theirs at risk,” said the minister from Llanos of the Hospital, remembering the seven specialists and four Civil Guard pilots who have died since 1982 in mountain or speleology actions.

Grande-Marlaska has spoken these words after attending a practice of movement in snow and an exercise of response to avalanches, carried out by specialists of the GREIM of Benasque and students of the course taught by the Center for Specific Mountain Training (CAEM). The visit was also attended by the delegate of the Government in Aragón, Fernando Beltrán, the general director of the Civil Guard, Mercedes González, and the subdelegate of the Government in Huesca, José Carlos Campo.

The minister has highlighted the Spanish model of mountain rescue as a “national and international reference”, for its operational efficiency, based on units at the foot of the massif, with an exhaustive knowledge of the terrain and with an immediate response capacity. “Everything is possible thanks to highly qualified technical training and ongoing training,” he said.

On Tuesday afternoon, Grande-Marlaska shared a few hours with GREIM staff at the Benasque quarry and received information on the latest interventions carried out in December 2025 and January 2026 at Pico Tablato and Punta Soles and in the Cerler and Aran Valley areas, as a result of various snow avalanches and mountain accidents that caused the deaths of eight mountaineers and skiers.

After a tragic beginning of the year in avalanche deaths, the head of Interior has called for “prudence and responsibility”, to enjoy the mountain with maximum security, “valuing the risks, always attending to the weather warnings and the recommendations of the authorities,” he said.

The Civil Guard, almost six decades of work in the mountains

The Mountain Service (SEMON) is a specialty with more than half a century of history, which began with the creation of the first groups of skier-climbers in 1967. Since 1981, the mountain specialists of the Civil Guard have assisted more than 48,000 people in more than 29,000 rescues carried out many times in extreme weather conditions.

EL SEMON maintains intensive cooperation with mountain rescue units from other European countries and participates in international networks and agencies specializing in alpine relief, as well as providing training to police and rescue teams from different countries.

In the practical exercise carried out in Benasque also participated students of the CAEM, located in Candanchú (Huesca), the improvement teaching center responsible for the teaching of specialization directed to personnel who integrate in mountain units. The XXXVIII course began in the month of September 2025 and consists of 1,640 hours of training.