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Accident prevention
In the worlds of work and recreation, the management of risk in the vertical environment is a major health and safety challenge. The Petzl Foundation provides technical training, supports efforts to develop unique safety solutions, encourages the publication of safety at height information, and funds programs that provide education and training designed to prevent accidents.
FRANCE - MONT BLANC: HOW CAN WE REDUCE ACCIDENTS IN THE GOUTER COULOIR ?
From 1990 to 2011, French mountain police force registers show 291 rescue operations in the Goûter couloir, [..] which resulted in 74 deaths [..]. Presenting a strong objective danger (...)
FRANCE - FIRST ANALYSIS OF SERAC REPORTS
The SERAC database is an experience sharing system meant to collect and publish individual stories of accident and near-misses lived in the mountains (...)
FRANCE - A PROFESSIONAL CANYONING MANUAL
In January 2018, the pedagogical engineering team at the CREPS Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Center for Sports Science in Vallon Pont d’Arc, France, published a canyoning manual (...)
FRANCE - A HANDBOOK FOR MOUNTAIN CLUB LEADERS
Thanks to the technical and financial support of the Petzl Foundation, the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) has published a new "mountain skills handbook" (...)
HAITI - HAITIANS DISCOVER CAVING
Southern Haiti is a very mountainous region, formed by two karst massifs located in national parks. Pic Macaya National Park is riddled with countless chasms and a number of canyons: (...)
FRANCE - CALL FOR PROJECTS BY PETZL EMPLOYEES
The Petzl Foundation invited the company’s employees to submit a project related to mountains or the vertical world. Each selected project met one or more of the (...)
FRANCE - AN AVALANCHE RISK PREVENTION TOOL FOR MOUNTAIN REFUGE WARDENS
Maps indicating which slopes have a gradient of more than 30° were handed out to refuge wardens at their Annual General Meeting (...)
FRANCE - UNDERSTANDING ROPE ACCESS INJURIES
The Petzl Foundation is funding a multidisciplinary research team (University of Lyon 1, France), who asked 500 rope access workers in the Rhône-Alpes region to complete a questionnaire with a view to gaining a better understanding (...)"
FRANCE - A SLOPE GRADIENT MAP TO AVOID AVALANCHES
On November 3, 2016, the National Institute of Geographic and Forestry Information (IGN) put online a graphical representation of the slopes over 30° covering all French mountain ranges (...)
UNITED STATES - SALT LAKE CITY, A CLIMBING WALL FOR THOSE IN RECOVERY
Fit to Recover, Salt Lake City’s only Sober gym and community center celebrated its first birthday in January 2016, with the unveiling of its new climbing wall, (...)
FRANCE - MAKING CLIFF ACCESS SAFER FOR BASE JUMPERS
Base jumping, which consists in free-falling from a fixed structure or a cliff before opening a parachute, is gaining in popularity. Base jumpers favor high mountains and cliffs (...)
FRANCE - AN AUTOMATIC WEATHER STATION IN THE HEART OF THE MONT-BLANC MOUNTAINS
Since January 2014, the most popular French mountains have had their own automatic weather station. It transmits valuable information in real time (...)
WORLDWIDE - PREVENTING WATERFALL ICE ACCIDENTS
The mountain guides Jérôme Blanc-Gras and Manu Ibarra have created an online database to collect the observations made by climbers on the condition of waterfall ice worldwide (...)
FRANCE - A NEW VERSION OF CAMPTOCAMP.ORG
To meet the modern needs of mountain, crag and wilderness enthusiasts, Camptocamp Association has launched the development of a new version of its famous mountain information website (...)
FRANCE - A MASK TO HELP ACCLIMATIZE
In April 2015, a team of French doctors have just tested a face mask on over thirty voluntary mountaineers and hikers passing through Manaslu (Nepal) base camp (...)
FRANCE - UNDERSTANDING MOUNTAIN SPORTS ACCIDENTS
Since 2012, the Petzl Foundation has funded research into mountain sport accidents. Our long-term aim is to improve prevention. (...)
ALGERIA - CLIMBING SAFELY IN DATE PALMS
In 2010, the BEDE association,which protects and promotes traditional agriculture, asked the Petzl Foundation to find a technical solution to improve the safety of date palm workers (..)
FRANCE - THE SHARING OF MOUNTAINS
Since 2012, the 82-4000 Association organizes mountaineering discovery stays for people in poverty (...)
GREECE - RESCUE TRAINING
In March 2014, seven students from Frison-Roche secondary school in Chamonix, accompanied by four rescuers and mountain guides, achieved a ski ascent (...)
CHILE - SANTIAGO: SILOS CLIMBING PARK
During the 2010 earth quake in Santiago, Chile, many structures were left unusable for their designed purpose. Following this disaster, an energetic group formed Fundation Deporte Libre (...)
UNITED STATES - LESSONS LEARNED FROM NEAR-MISS ACCIDENTS
A climber nearly rappels off the end of his rope. A crew performing a mountain rescue experiences a mainline failure, but the backup holds. (...)
FRANCE - A NEW PATH TO THE CONSCRITS REFUGE
In September 2012, a brand new path was created to reach the refuge of the Conscrits in the heart of Mont Blanc, via a Himalayan footbridge. (...)
NEPAL - MOUNTAIN CAREERS TRAINING CENTER
An hour's drive north of Katmandu, the Kakani training center stands on a ridge at the foot of a climbing wall, at an altitude of 2,000 m. (...)
FRANCE - STRONG LINKS WITH THE UIAA AND MOUNTAIN FEDERATIONS
Increasing technical knowledge to reduce the safety gap for mountain leaders, including professionals who need our help the most, is a vocation of the Petzl Foundation. (...)
GREECE - TRAINING RESCUERS ON KALYMNOS
What climber has not heard of Kalymnos? The Greek island located in the southeastern Aegean Sea is world-renowned for its many cliffs. More than 2,000 climbing routes for all levels have been opened there. (...)
UNITED STATES - DEVELOPING TELECOMMUNICATIONS FOR THOSE WHO NEED IT MOST
More than two billion people in the world have no access to information and communication technologies (ICT), such as telephone and internet…(...)
UNITED STATES - ADAPTIVE CLIMBING WITH PARADOX SPORTS
Paradox Sports envisions a world where people of all backgrounds and abilities can pursue a life of excellence through human-powered outdoor sports, regardless of physical disability. (...)
FRANCE - DISCOVERING MOUNTAINS WITH THE PIOLETS JEUNES
Encouraging mountain activities for young people: that was the credo of the fourth edition of the Piolets Jeunes ("young people with ice axes"), organized in May 2013 (...)
MALI - TRAINING CLIMBING INSTRUCTORS IN THE MANDÉ
The Mandé, "the cradle of Mali", is home to an exceptional natural heritage. The sandstone cliffs ofthe Manding Mountains are a popular climbing area. (...)
PERU - DEVELOPING THE RESCUE CAPABILITY OF PERUVIAN FIREFIGHTERS
The Petzl Foundation became associated with the NGO Pompiers Sans Frontières based on a common goal: to help develop the search and rescue capability of Peruvian firefighters.(...)
FRANCE - SAFETY AWARENESS IN GLACIAL ENVIRONMENTS
In 2006, La Chamoniarde, a mountain accident prevention and rescue association, initiated a series of free mountain safety workshops. (...)
NEPAL - SUPPORTING WOMEN MOUNTAINEERS
Ama Dablam (6,812m), a majestic ice-capped cone in the Himalayas of Nepal, has long haunted the dreams of Pema and Dawa, two young Nepalese women (...)