“Attention! Difficult-to-navigate section of trail secured with chains.” For decades, this is how the editors of tourist maps noted the risks posed by the Rám Gorge. As a result of the 2005 renovation, the rusty chains and ladders were removed from the wild, romantic ravine, and new rest benches, genuinely usable steps, stainless-steel ladders, and handrails were installed at the exposed, truly difficult sections. Over time, the warning signs have also softened: today they mainly indicate the recommended direction of travel, warn of the danger of falling rocks, and advise wearing footwear suitable for the terrain.
Nagytuskó, Széles-Torony, Bunkó, Függő-kő, Felkiáltójel, Árpád trónja — collectively known as the Vadálló Stones—are also popular hiking destinations in the region. On fog- and cloud-free days throughout the year, hikers can enjoy the magnificent panorama, and in spring we can delight in the uniquely beautiful, flowering rocky grasslands on the mountainsides.
These two difficult hiking destinations attract many tens of thousands of visitors every year. Due to the high number of visitors, the difficulty of the routes, and sections that are still occasionally accident-prone, several minor and major accidents occur at both locations each year. Because of the frequency of such hiking accidents, Pilisi Parkerdő Zrt., which manages the area, asked us to prepare a rescue plan for the Rám Gorge—one that can be pulled out at a moment’s notice during an actual rescue, and that allows Parkerdő, the BMSz, and other cooperating organizations to work according to clear, precise guidelines. In the rescue plan, we compiled many details: from access options to the gorge, through rescue strategies selectable depending on the injured person’s location, to the required number of personnel for stretcher movement in each section, and even the rope lengths needed for vertical maneuvers. The rescue plan is complete—but of course it would be worth nothing if we didn’t test it ourselves.
This weekend we held our autumn exercise, practicing at the hard-to-reach locations of the Rám Gorge and the Vadálló Stones. Before the exercise, we set several goals. First, we wanted to calmly—but together, with a stretcher in hand—walk through the familiar terrain so that if any of the participants had questions at any point, we could discuss them together, and if a small, innovative idea came up, we could try it out right away. We also wanted to test the staffing requirements defined in the rescue plan at a few problematic spots, as well as the fixed points installed last week above the larger ladders that can be used as anchors. We devoted several workdays before the exercise to these fixed points so that in the future we wouldn’t have to search for reliably usable anchors and build belays in the andesite rubble, breccia, and otherwise not very stable rock precisely when an injured person suffering pain and at risk of hypothermia needs to be evacuated from the gorge as quickly and gently as possible.
At the Vadálló Stones, the practice of the other half of our team was similarly productive. Over the past ten-plus years we have been here on numerous occasions, several times arriving to treat seriously injured, life-threatening, polytraumatized patients. Here, during the exercise, we began installing new fixed anchors that will be reliable for many years and will serve rescue teams responding here—and injured people in need of help—for a long time to come. On the crumbly, difficult, slanted slopes, we tested a new stretcher-transport method that was new to us and that we had previously seen only abroad; using short auxiliary ropes, it further increases the stability of both rescuers and the stretcher. We tested this new method both during uphill hauling and downhill lowering on hillsides of varying steepness.
On Saturday evening, in true caver fashion, we celebrated—by surprise—with a weatherproof cake three of our cave rescue colleagues who turned 80 this year and who are still active members of our community today. The “roaring eighties”—Székely Kinga and Zentay Zoli—were represented on site by Péter Taródi, who, as a founding member, has been an active member of the BMSz since 1961, that is, for 64 years. The others were unable to attend the surprise celebration for various reasons, but we hope to be able to raise a glass to their health in person soon.
On Sunday, near our campsite, we familiarized ourselves in small groups with old and new vertical techniques, mobile motorized winches, concrete screws, and the Pest County Search and Rescue Service’s electric-powered, single-wheel stretcher. Beyond our thanks for their demonstration, we are grateful that cave rescuers from Bakony and Miskolc, as well as staff members from Pilisi Parkerdő and the TEK who were present, also took part in our weekend exercise. Many thanks for the patient understanding of all hikers, runners, mountain bikers, and dog walkers whom we unintentionally disturbed on that beautiful weekend day around the Rám Gorge and the Vadálló Stones.
Translation:
The program was supported by the Ministry of Agriculture’s 2025 grant program for nature and environmental protection civil organizations.
Photos: Márton Kovács