r/AskEurope • u/tuxette Norway • 24d ago
Travel For those of you from countries where nature can be extremely challenging, how often is it needed to rescue tourists who aren't properly prepared for your nature?
In Norway we recently had a case where an American journalist was missing for nearly a week in rough terrain with bad weather on top of that. However, he was found alive, despite having some serious injuries, because he had equipment and warm clothes to keep him alive.
Not everyone is so lucky. And it's getting worse; people come to the mountains and the such thinking that all they need for their hikes to Instagram-worthy spots are a t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops. Forget about the backpack with at least a change of clothes and some food and water; that ruins the outfit. Rescue operations are costly, and those doing the rescues also risk their own lives to save the lives of people who never should have been out in the first place.
I know Norway isn't the only place this happens. But how bad is it where you are?
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u/Notspherry 24d ago
Germans dig deep holes in Dutch beaches for some reason. Sometimes, one of these holes collapses. I once asked a German colleague about the holes. He mumbled something about the Atlantic Wall, but would not go into detail.
They also get caught in rip currents and drown every so often.
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u/thanatica Netherlands 23d ago
Some would argue that it's cooler in a hole. Maybe so. But then why the hell do you seek out the warmest place you could possibly find?
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u/EiffoGanss 23d ago
I didn’t realize until it got a lot of attention in the news just how many tourists unfortunately drown in the summer in our sea in the summer when it’s, in my opinion, relatively tame
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u/Rude-Opposite-8340 24d ago edited 24d ago
I live near one of the big rivers in the Netherlands and there are tourists and expats drowning every year.
Everytime i hear a "traumaheli" in the air and its flying to the river its 9 out of 10 times someone dead. There is a reason why there are no locals swimming there, we use the lakes or a calm bay.
You cant just jump into a 8 meter + deep river with insane current and expect you are gonna be fine.
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u/NuclearMaterial Ireland 23d ago
You cant just jump into a 8 meter + deep river with insane current and expect you are gonna be fine.
Not with that attitude. Besides, I expect none of them were wearing bright orange inflatable armbands!
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u/Amadan81 Ireland 23d ago
Standard procedure
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u/Far_Giraffe4187 21d ago
The sea, the rivers, the beach, and I thought my country didn’t do extremely challenging nature..
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u/Socmel_ Italy 24d ago
Quite regularly.
It's a fairly common occurrence to rescue tourists who hike on our mountains without the proper gear, wearing sneakers or flip flops, for example.
Just last week an English tourist was charged the fee to rescue him by helicopter, after he went up a path that was closed for safety reasons and he ignored the warning signs.
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u/Jacopo86 Italy 21d ago
And Italy is not even "extremely challenging" it's just the reality of mountain hiking. But so many Don't take the necessary precautions or equipment
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u/die_kuestenwache Germany 23d ago
We don't have that much challenging nature but there is one region that is notoriously dangerous. On the North sea coast there is a unique landscape, the Wadden. It allows you to stroll out during low tide only to then have the high tide creep in through tiny little canals and literally cut off your way back to land and coming in from behind you. This landscape regularly requires rescue missions, afaik.
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u/tuxette Norway 23d ago
That sounds terrifying...
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u/Equal-Flatworm-378 Germany 23d ago
It is great as long as you know the hours of the tides and don’t walk into the wadden in the dark or when it’s foggy. But for tourists I would always recommend not to go without a guide, if you want to do a longer tour.
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u/Equal-Flatworm-378 Germany 23d ago
That was my first thought too. Tourists often underestimate the danger.
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u/Desperate-Angle7720 21d ago
Also Zugspitze.
People wanting to climb the highest mountain in Germany with shorts, t-shirt and sandals. Not even aware that for the majority of people, it’s a two-day trip with a night in a mountain cabin.
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u/Mysterious-Kiwi-9728 17d ago
we have something similar in my town too. much smaller dimensions, but the logistics are the same.
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u/8bitmachine Austria 23d ago
We have an entire subreddit for that: /r/DeutscheWanderer
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u/missThora Norway 23d ago
Doesn't surprise me.
Do they also try to drive their camper vans over the mountains and get stuck when they can't handle even a tiny bit of snow or windy roads?
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u/serverhorror Austria 23d ago
They're Germans, what do you think?
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u/missThora Norway 23d ago
Thin, worn summer tires and no insulation or working heater trying to cross mountains at Easter and blocking the road for hours.
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u/JoeAppleby Germany 23d ago
Does the press still differentiate through wording, whether the people that need to be rescued are Germans or Austrians? I.e. if it’s dramatisch, tragisch etc. it’s Austrians, if its matter of fact reporting it’s Germans?
I used to visit friends in Innsbruck every year for New Years and that was pointed out to me. I fully know my limits and stuck to stuff I could safely reach, my friends also planned stuff around that.
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u/PainInMyBack 21d ago
Dunno about other places, but here in Norway the same words and phrases are used for foreigners and natives, and it's pretty neutral (although sometimes the people interviewed - EMTs, rescuers etc - let the frustration bleed through).
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u/cieniu_gd Poland 23d ago edited 22d ago
In Polish mountains lives Wim Hof, that weird guru who learns about healing power of breathing and cold baths. His followers regulary go on the mountain hikes with undies only. They have to be rescued quite often.
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u/Mountain_Cat_cold 21d ago
Literally only undies? 😳
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u/cieniu_gd Poland 20d ago
Yup, undies and trekking boots. Here's a photo: https://www.national-geographic.pl/ludzie/w-bieliznie-na-babia-gore-gorskie-morsowanie-smiertelnie-niebezpieczny-trend-zapoczatkowany-przez-holendra/
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u/gink-go Portugal 24d ago edited 23d ago
A couple of tourists drown each year in the ocean on the off season when there are no lifeguards and the sea is a lot rougher than in the summer. The Atlantic ocean is pretty unforgiving here if you are not careful and have no idea about waves or riptides, most locals dont go the beach outside of summer but tourists tend to go on warmer days.
Also every year a couple of people, national tourists mostly, die or need to be evacuated from the waterfalls at the Gerês national park. Most people here have no "nature culture" what so ever and go there unprepared as if it was a beach day, they do trails with flipflops and stuff and end up slipping and falling.
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u/tuxette Norway 23d ago
Most people here have no "nature culture" what so ever and go there unprepared as if it was a beach day, they do trails with flipflops and stuff and end up slipping and falling.
Yeah, and then they come to Norway and slip and fall...
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u/ManWhoIsDrunk Norway 23d ago
And here in Norway slipping and falling is quite often a once in a lifetime experience.
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u/besi97 23d ago
Tourists (mostly American) regularly need rescue, or more like corpse retrieval in swiss ski resorts, due to differences in American and European ski parks, combined with the tough terrain of the Alps.
American ski resorts are required to have safe conditions at every point of the area they control. So as long as you don't jump ropes or climb fences, you are guaranteed to be safe.
But this is not the case in European parks. You are in the wilderness, just with some extra infrastructure on top. The only place that is guaranteed to be safe is the marked piste. Everything else might not be maintained, and might not have avalanche control. Or even worse, swiss ski areas often have nature preservation areas inside the park, to make sure that the ski lift operator doesn't just carpet bomb the whole area after heavy snowfall. But this means that there are areas right next to the piste that might have a high avalanche risk, even if it is not marked specifically. People regularly die checking them out.
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u/olivinebean United Kingdom 24d ago
Not always the countries you first think of.
That video of the hysterical American in the Irish countryside being told they have to walk to get back to the road is always brilliant viewing.
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u/lilputsy Slovenia 23d ago edited 23d ago
When we came out of the caves into the daylight and realised we still had hundreds of feet to climb before reaching the ‘lift’, my sister collapsed in pain and despair, my friend and I were in tears, and I had a literally heart attack. I don’t know how we found the strength to get ourselves out of there. We were the last out of the caves having been overtaken by four later tours. The guide told us they had been worried about us before we went down but as we’d said we were sure they didn’t think to warn us. They also said that had they needed to call the mountain rescue we would have missed our ship because it would have taken ages. When I developed the chest pain and couldn’t breathe I knew it was bad but didn’t realise at the time how bad, and it did settle to a dull ache. We missed the next part of our tour as we just weren’t fit. Two nights later in the coronary care unit back home when I was told I was lucky to be alive I realised just how close I’d come to losing my life that day. My diagnosis is stress induced cardiomyopathy with mild heart failure. I had been perfectly healthy before this trip but it has permanently damaged my heart.
This is a review that an american left on Tripadvisor for Postojna cave. It's a slow tour, part of it on a train, easy, for families, 1.2km long.
Edit: sorry, it was a review for Škocjan caves. A bit longer and no train but still suitable for little kids.
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u/Cascadeis Sweden 23d ago
Wait, someone got a heart attack and broke down in tears during a 1.2km hike, basically? Not 12km?
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u/lilputsy Slovenia 23d ago
I was wrong, it was a review for Škocjan caves. That one's 2,5km with a guide and then the exit is additional 300m or 600m. The whole thing has around 500 - 800 steps. You can also chose to do a longer walk around the village, that's another 2,5km and 700 steps. I went there once and the cave part is very easy. We did the long walk around and it was just very hot but not at all difficult.
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u/ManWhoIsDrunk Norway 23d ago
Fucking hell. I've walked further to buy 24 pints of beer at a shop, and carried it back. Steep hills and snow as well, and i'm a heavy smoker and below average shape for a Norwegian...
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u/Careless_and_weird-1 23d ago
Can you imagine to almost die of the efford of walking 5-6 km?
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u/repocin Sweden 23d ago
I genuinely feel sorry for 'em. They've been failed by their society, and it's just sad to see.
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u/ScoutTheRabbit 21d ago
I appreciate the empathy. Going to the gym twice a week doesn't make up for how sedentary American life pushes you to be outside of the small handful of exorbitantly expensive walkable areas.
I'm a danish citizen who took my husband with me to Copenhagen. In just three weeks he is astonishingly healthier... And it's not like he didn't try hard as hell in the US!
Americans aren't like that (physically, at least) because of personal failings. They're set up to fail, and it takes money, privilege, or an insane amount of discipline to escape those trappings.
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u/Mysterious-Kiwi-9728 17d ago
oh my god😭 can you imagine almost dying from a 2.5km walk? that’s so embarrassing… and they posted it on TRIP ADVISOR?? for everyone to see??💀
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u/tereshkovavalentina Germany 22d ago
People don't just get a heart attack from a hike, there must have been something going on already and then it happened during the hike. What is wild to me is how much they worried about missing the rest of their trip. You should go to a hospital right away if you have an actual heart attack.
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u/olivinebean United Kingdom 23d ago
I see Americans prepare for a small walk like it's the hike of a lifetime and they still struggle.
Pablo and Fatima are doing it in sandals with smoke breaks no problem.
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u/DreadPirateAlia Finland 23d ago edited 23d ago
I bought a travel guide to London written by a US author once. It was a good book otherwise, but the way they handled distances was hilarious.
We wanted to visit the Highgate Cemetery (I highly recommend it, if you haven't been there btw). We took the bus to Highgate, with the intention of switching to another bus. However, we missed our connection (the timetable had changed because of reasons), so we decided to hoof it, despite our guidebook severely warning us against attempting it, as "despite looking like a short distance on the map, the distance is NOT walkable! You should take the connecting route [which wasn't running on that day], or hail a cab instead".
We had 40 mins until the start of our cemetary tour (which we didn't want to miss), so we figured we'd walk, and if we started running out of time then we'd take a cab... and the "unwalkable" distance turned out to be something like 3 km.
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u/thanatica Netherlands 23d ago
Americans are astonished that any distance can be walked, even more so when it should be walked.
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u/megamegpyton 23d ago
Like the fat americans in 'In Bruges'
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u/NuclearMaterial Ireland 23d ago
Guys... I wouldn't go up there...
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u/megamegpyton 22d ago
I just got a message from.reddit that 765 people viewed this, but then only 18 liked it. I guess 747 were americans.
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u/olagorie Germany 23d ago
1.2km? That’s the part of my daily commute that I walk to work (the company is located on à hill)
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u/Careless_and_weird-1 22d ago
I have walked 10 km already, just a roundtrip to work and back. It's not much
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u/Ennas_ Netherlands 24d ago
That sounds funny. Do you have a link?
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u/olivinebean United Kingdom 24d ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/s/mpFQ3fveFo
Tired toddler energy meets amused man on horse
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u/Draigdwi Latvia 23d ago
Nature in Latvia is very mild and one has to get really creative to get in trouble with it. Still some manage. Swimming in river Gauja is a bad idea. The legend says a witch lives there who takes the most handsome men. In reality there’s currents, back currents, double bed (as a tunnel under the normal bed, get sucked in that you will never be found). And then there’s a lot of hogweed (Heracleum), it’s juice gives strong chemical burns. People shouldn’t use it’s leaves in place of toilet paper.
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u/Aksium__84 Norway 23d ago
I mean we always have some sort of tourist drowning, falling down a mountain or just freezing to death each winter here in Norway, and then comes summer with the yearly invasion of Germans, who rents a boat and goes out on the ocean and drown.
And then we have the skiiers who insist on skiing down every damned avalache prone mountain in winter. At this point we should start a national lottery, and the person who guesses the rigth amount of deaths gets the belongings of the dead people.
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u/HereWeGoAgain-1979 Norway 23d ago
Dark, but I agree 😅
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u/Aksium__84 Norway 23d ago
I think we should start forcing the dead ones relatives find the remains of their lost kin on their own. Would save the rescue parties having to endanger their own lifes, and it would have a detering effect on any more would be unprepared hikers
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u/NikNakskes Finland 23d ago
Ah yes... much like the yearly: how many people are gonna drown this year on midsummer. It will be a news item. Both before and after. Cause ofcourse we all need to know the official number for the family lottery. So yle provides and dutifully reports the official death toll of juhannus on the 6 o'clock news the next day. It has never been 0... but this is locals, not tourists so it doesn't count for the post.
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u/Fabri91 Italy 24d ago
The same occurs also on the Italian Alps, with many tourists severely underestimating the terrain and what's needed.
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u/herlaqueen Italy 24d ago
Yeah, this year is being especially dire, and the number of stories of people who had inappropriate gear and/or left too late and/or didn't pay attention to the weather (which means they lack the very basics needed even for an easy 2-3 hour hike) is high.
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u/Ok_Homework_7621 23d ago
Very common in Croatia, usually tourists in flip-flops getting stuck in the mountains or wannabe sailors getting carried away by the sea on something inflatable or a SUP/kayak. Bonus points for taking their kids with them.
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u/Aeon_Return Czechia 23d ago edited 23d ago
Czechs everywhere feeling personally called out by this one even though you didn't name names... (and yeah, of course we're going to take the kids, we need them to paddle their little feet and help our air mattress go forward)
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u/Brilliant_Bake4200 24d ago
Unfortunately people underestimate the danger of the cliffs of moher in Ireland and fall to their death semi-regularly. There were 2 tourist deaths last year including one of a 12 year old boy, really devastating.
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u/fidelises Iceland 24d ago
I would think Iceland might be similar to Norway in this instance. Accidents while hiking, accidental drownings and car accidents where people underestimate the road conditions are probably the most common.
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u/Huldukona Iceland 22d ago
Not to mention the total disregard for Reynisfjara, where people - despite signs and warnings - get regularly swept out to sea by sneaker waves.
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u/crucible Wales 24d ago
I believe the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team in Eryri (Snowdonia) is nor the busiest such team in England and Wales, if not the entire UK.
https://www.mountain.rescue.org.uk/teams/llanberis-mrt/
People getting into difficulty on Yr Wyddfa (Mount Snowdon) isn’t exactly a new ‘thing’, but locals have said there is a recent trend of people being rescued when they attempt walking the more difficult routes up the mountain. Including leaving weaker members of their party behind.
More recently people have been heading to remote spots featured in Instagram and TikTok posts with little to no preparation beforehand, and have needed to be rescued.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c51y19pn0l7o
EDIT: link.
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u/proton-testiq 23d ago
Leaving people from their group behind????
Well I guess you mean they split etc, some returned some continued.
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u/NuclearMaterial Ireland 23d ago
Including leaving weaker members of their party behind
What are they going to do, carry them up? Besides, they're clearly following the pirates code ☠️☠️☠️
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u/AirportCreep Finland 23d ago
Probably not a well known spot in Wales, but Constitution Hill in Aberystwyth and the adjoining cliffside claimed at least one students life every year whilst I was there for uni. It has a beautiful view over the town, but it could be treacherous if you started messing about around the rocky cliffs.
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u/gnarlygb 24d ago
I interpreted nature as challenging animals. I came for the Scottish midges stories.
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u/tuxette Norway 23d ago
And you don't have any to tell?
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u/saywherefore Scotland 22d ago
I’m an English tourist in Scotland (by which I mean I have only lived here for 5 years). I have always been very relaxed about getting bitten by ticks, having the attitude that you can just pull them out and get on with your life.
Anyway I just got out of hospital after a week’s stay because Lyme’s disease stopped my heart working properly!
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u/cototudelam 23d ago
It’s actually a running joke that we Czechs are exactly this type of tourist in Slovakian mountains. Every damn year they have to rescue someone who thought that because we used to share a federation, and because the highest Czech mountain is a tame 1600 m hill with asphalt road to the top, that they can wear a T-shirt and flip flops to Slovakia’s 2000+ m rocky peaks.
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u/PGLBK 22d ago
The same stereotype (of CZ tourists) exists in Croatia too. And apparently also in Slovenia.
It breeds recurring ideas about charging for mountain rescue - our gals & guys from HGSS are both really good and universally beloved.
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u/cototudelam 22d ago
Oh yeah - I personally know a girl who went (alone!) on a trek up the Dolomites, at one point realised she can't safely turn to get back, so climbed higher, still couldn't find a way to turn, so she climbed even higher until she ended up on a cliff ledge where she called a helicopter rescue. Cool as a cucumber, didn't see anything wrong with what she did.
Me and my husband are avid mountain hikers and we passed this on our kids too, we often hike around the 2000 m altitude, but we respect the hell out of terrain (and weather). Carrying extra clothes, never planning a route that would require specialist climbing equipment, and just to feel safer, I always buy extra insurance to cover rescue if somebody got injured. Luckilly we never had an injury.
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u/NikNakskes Finland 23d ago
Not nature as such, but weather. Winters in lapland are brutal for European standards. -20 is a pretty normal day temperature in mid winter, and -30 is not all that uncommon.
I remember 20 years ago, when the first loads of day tourists from the UK would arrive to rovaniemi, how ill prepared they were for the weather here. Jeans and sneakers with a light anorak, a hat only if they had remembered it. Frostbite was probably a common occurrence, as were falls and sprained ankles, even when they were just in the city. They looked miserable in any case.
To stop this, they started to put these people in the safari outfits right at the airport. Now they looked stupid in the city, but at least they were warm with no exposed body parts and shoes that wouldn't turn every speck of snow into a slip and slide.
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u/Far_Giraffe4187 21d ago edited 21d ago
When I studied in Finland, my Sicilian flatmate had bought his first sweaters in life. He asked me if they were warm enough for the winter to come. They looked lovely, but were summer cotton!
The Roman girls saw ads for snow boots and were absolutely sure they would Never Ever going to wear such ugly boots. WHO on earth would??
On the other hand: I was kind of shocked by the many t-shirts on a Saturday night in December, -15. Helsinki is not Rovamiemi, I know, but only a t-shirt when it’s freezing, come on.
(This was 30 years ago)
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u/NikNakskes Finland 21d ago
Yes. Nowadays probably not so common anymore since we got the internet and can look stuff up. But 20-30 years ago, people just went with their own interpretation of "cold" and what they'd wear then.
My friends laughed their arses off when they saw what I had packed for my exchange to rovaniemi: 1 x shorts and tshirt. We were there from April till end of june.I figured we'd get a spot of summer too. And we did. It went over 30C and at one point lapland was the warmest place in Europe at that moment (or something similar not 100% sure anymore).
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u/Heidi739 Czechia 23d ago
Our nature is hardly challenging, but this does happen sometimes. Especially the mountains - people think that our mountains are tiny and nothing can happen, and then they get stuck in a snow storm in a hoodie. That said, most of those tourists are either Czech, or coming from the nearby countries.
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u/Baba_NO_Riley Croatia 22d ago edited 22d ago
https://www.jutarnji.hr/naslovnica/nesretni-dobri-turist-svejk-3354590
If you like maybe you can read it full in better translation. It's a great and warm story about Czech on vacation ( here in Croatia).
( ..)
Češi jsou takový národ. Lidé se mohou stokrát informovat o tom, co dokáže bouře a velké vlny, ale Čech si myslí, že to všechno bez problémů překoná – zjednodušeně to na tiskové konferenci vysvětlil český ministr zahraničí Cyril Svoboda. (..)
Tato záležitost je však stejně často tragická jako romantická. Kdyby se mě úředníci českého ministerstva zahraničí před letošním létem zeptali, jací jsou to lidé, pro které je každý dalmatský kopec Himálaj, každá pláž Magalhaesův průliv a každá matrace Titanic, řekl bych jim, že naši čeští a moravští bratři jsou posledním nezkaženým evropským národem. Ano: bezstarostní a někdy ve své naivitě přímo hloupí, ale skromní, šetrní, veselí a nezkažení. Pro takové lidi je bohužel dvacáté první století a horké, barevné konzumní klima betonových evropských riviér často stejně kruté a kruté jako krajina Afghánistánu nebo Iráku.
V době, kdy bohatá evropská střední třída přijíždí na Jadran jen proto, aby si stěžovala na nedostatek wellness, lounge barů, okázalých akcí a onu banální „nedostatek obsahu“, a jejich děti, nacpané extází, se neuroticky třesou na elektrizujících plážích Novalje a stěžují si na nefunkční pěnové kanóny a nedostatek McDonald's, v době, kdy se vyšší společnost bezvládně vznáší po Jadranu na obrovských, objemných rakvích, které troufale nazývají jachtami, a stěžuje si na vysokou cenu kokainu a nedostatek Paris Hilton – dobrý turista Švejk šplhá na Biokovo v plastových žabkách, aby si užil výhled, užívá si koupání v čistém moři, jezdí na gumových dětských banánech, potápí se s obdivem ke stříbrným mincím a nestěžuje si na nic.
To, že se občas uklouže po Biokovu v propocených pantoflích nebo šlape do pedálů na Hvar, nikdy není proto, že by měl extáze dost: dobrodružný duch dětských filmů, na kterých jsme všichni vyrůstali a který už dávno vyhasl, v něm stále žije, stejně jako dobrodružný duch polských bratrů Lolka, Bolka a Janošíka, jako slavný optimismus legendárních Pata a Mata, geniálního dua z českého kresleného filmu „A je to“. Kteří, jak známo, mohou být stokrát informováni o tom, že z odstředivky do pračky nelze vyrobit míchačku na beton, a přesto si budou myslet, že to zvládnou bez problémů.
A až je konečně otřese proud z improvizovaného míchadla a až je bóra pod Biokovem odnese na místo, odkud není návratu, Pat a Mat – vím, pro Ljubomira Beneše a zbytek jejich rodičů to není žádná útěcha, ale přesto – zemřou, protože příliš milovali život. Češi prostě nikdy nedospěli. A to jim závidím. I když by nebylo špatné, kdyby se před vyplutím na kánoi vyrobené ze starého kotle s bórou v zádech ještě zeptali svého konzulátu, jak daleko je to zhruba na Palagružu, jak se jí říká. ( ..)
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u/Heidi739 Czechia 22d ago
Awww! That's so cute, I'm glad you guys like us even if we're so dumb sometimes 😅 I'll save the article for practicing - I'm trying to learn Croatian and while my spoken level is very poor, I understand well enough. Hvala :)
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u/Baba_NO_Riley Croatia 22d ago
You are welcome. We are sometimes rough and dismissive but we really really admire and like your spirit and Czech people in general. Hope you will enjoy Croatia many times.
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u/CreepyOctopus -> 23d ago
Sweden, as you'd expect, shares some of Norway's experience here. Mountains up north are serious business, they're fairly high, steep and remote.
The Swedish Mountain Rescue organization, which is made up of volunteers, conducts about 300 rescues a year according to the stats I see. 12% of their rescues involve foreign citizens, and the most common nationalities to be rescued are Norwegians followed by Germans. Norwegians are of course neighbors, much of the border runs through the mountain ranges, so it seems our numbers again confirm the stereotype about German tourists getting into trouble.
By the way, Swedish-Norwegian cooperation in border areas is great. Rescuers and vehicles from across the border often help out whenever something happens.
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u/Life_Barnacle_4025 Norway 23d ago
Winters up north are especially challenging, people just seem to ignore every avalanche warning there is. It's getting so bad that the municipalities are trying to find ways to get the info better out to tourists in several languages because many doesn't seem to even know English 🤦♀️
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u/One-Dare3022 Sweden 23d ago
I can’t remember that we did that many a year but then again SMR covers a big region. I haven’t myself been active for the last six years due to medical reasons but two of my sons are active.
And we have indeed had a really good cooperation with the Norwegians over the years. It’s about distance and not about two different countries.
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u/CreepyOctopus -> 23d ago
Yeah, Fjällräddningen operates in Norrbotten, Jämtland and a bit outside those too. It's a really big area!
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u/One-Dare3022 Sweden 23d ago
All the way from Dalarna in the south up to Treriksröset in the north I believe.
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u/arrig-ananas Denmark 23d ago
We have a lot of coastlines, and therefore, a lot of tourists that go swimming, unaware of the dangers in doing so. In avage 80-100 drovns a year. A high number, but not compared to the amount of incidents at the cost. In 2024, there were 1364 actions there life there at stake (both tourists and locals).
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u/Noodlemaker89 22d ago
It seems the Germans come out on top of this statistic when counting only non-Danish residents.
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u/Baba_NO_Riley Croatia 23d ago
Our nature looks mild but, especially the sea can be extremely challenging - as any body of water can. The fact that there's a warm weather, "just a bit windy" leads tourists into thinking things are calm, the place they want to go to is closer then it actually is, they underestimate the need for water, the rate at which body loses warmth in water, the rate at which the wind can and does switch directions, the fact that Adriatic current and the waves will pull you away, not bring you closer to the shores, the fact that boats and ships cannot see a swimmer in the water ...
It used to be the Czechs in flip-flops, "sailing" on a inflatable boat, or something of that kind.
Nowdays, various boating accidents usually involving Germans or Austrians are more common.
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u/DirectCaterpillar916 United Kingdom 23d ago
Lots of ill-equipped people have to be rescued every year from mountains in UK. Some people die every year. But they’re mainly home-grown so we can’t luxuriate in the “stupid foreigners” game!
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u/One-Dare3022 Sweden 23d ago
It became very often during the pandemic when people couldn’t go abroad for vacation and tried to hike in the mountains up here in Lappland. Two of my sons who also lives here had to participate in quite a few rescue operations after missing tourists. People only wearing shorts, T-shirt and flip flops surprised by the fast change in the mountain weather. Even if it’s mid July you have to be prepared for snow in the mountains.
Before I had my heart attack and stroke in 2019 I also had to participate in rescue operations but it became a lot more of them during the pandemic. And when I was young it would take me a little over two hours on skies from my childhood home over to Norway. And I heard from old friends that you had the same problem also during the pandemic with people without knowledge tried on mountain hiking.
The Norwegian and Swedish mountains can be very dangerous even for those who are used to the mountains and live here.
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u/Substratas Albania 23d ago
The Accursed Mountains are extremely remote so it’s not uncommon to hear about tourists disappearing while trekking there, the last one being a guy from Australia some months ago. The thing is that many of them disappear without a trace...
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u/Luihuparta Finland 23d ago
The Accursed Mountains
many of them disappear without a trace
Albania isn't a country, it's a fantasy novel.
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u/Substratas Albania 23d ago
Albania isn't a country, it's a fantasy novel.
For real, even Lord Voldemort was hiding here.
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u/Renbarre 22d ago
I have seen tourists going on a glacier with high heels for her and shiny city shoes for him. I stared. That was in the French Alps.
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u/hughsheehy Ireland 23d ago
It's quite regular on one of Dublin's beaches that helicopter rescues are required because people are unaware that the tide comes in.
Several times a year. Every year.
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u/CaptainPoset Germany 23d ago
To be honest, in every country, there are tourists who are challenged with the local nature (or nature&related infrastructure).
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u/Buzzkill_13 23d ago
In Spain too an American went missing in the mountains. The other day after a month searching for him he was found, deceased unfortunately. People need to be rescued every single day from some mountain in Spain, several hundreds so far this year. Getting worse here, too. For the exact same reason.
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u/WhoYaTalkinTo United Kingdom 23d ago
Even people from here get lost or stranded hiking in the countryside/up mountains
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u/Bradipedro Italy 23d ago edited 23d ago
Italy: so bad in some places…ex in the 5 Terre trail a law forbids to wear flip flops and they issue fines. Also lakes and rivers. People used to the sea don’t understand that under a cal surface a circular ripple means a deadly eddy / whirlpool that sucks down. Kids and dogs drown in no time.
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u/martinbaines Scotland & Spain 22d ago
Sadly all too common in Scotland. Weather can change in an instant and many people are very underpared. Thankfully mountain rescue do a great job and not many die, but every year there are one or two deaths.
It is similar in Spain - many go into the mountains with no real idea. Only this week there has been the well publicised of a tourist lost in the mountains - who sadly was found dead. As well as mountains down in the south people completely underestimate the challenges of heat. Basically if the temperatures are over body temperature, just stay in the shade and avoid exertion.
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u/Doitean-feargach555 Ireland 23d ago
Ireland isn't known for its paticularly "extremely challenging nature," but there are some things. Most Irish people are just accustomed to these things through local knowledge and experience, so we just view it as common sense.
The Coast/Sea. The Irish coastline is rugged and beautiful. Bit for most of the year outside of tourist seaeon, it's extremely rainy and wind tears through the coastline like it's trying to split rock itself. It's because we're a big rocky island. Therefore, the currents and straits around Ireland are extremely powerful and dangerous. There's generally a big load of people dragged out to sea and even a few deaths every year. Especially on the West Coast. The coast guard is constantly in and out with swimmers who got dragged out to sea. Once 2 girls got dragged from Galway bay to Inis Oírr. Last year a local known singer in salthill drowned at sea god bless him. We also have these winds called a "Gairifean," meaning "rough gust from the sea." People you hear falling off cliffs generally fall off because of these winds (unless the ground gives way).
Bogs/fens/swamps/wetlands/salt marshes. The people of Nordics, North East Europe, and the UK should already know the dangers of soft, wet habitats like these. Raised bogs especially are very dangerous as they can be extremely deep and you can't swim in it. If you step on what we call "bog holes" and you have no one with you. You're fucked. The bog will swallow you, and you'll be dug up in 300 years. The deepest bog in Ireland is 15 meters deep. Always take precaution on soft ground.
Wild Néifinn. Wild Néifinn is the most remote part of Ireland located in my native county, Mayo. It's a national park around 150km². Not cery big compared to others around the world but still decent size. We always hear of mountain search and rescue having to air lift people who have gotten lost or injured.
Mountains. This is where we get to the real jam of the subject. In 2021, the Irish Mountain rescue had 408 incidents, 21 were fatalities (ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamachaí). The biggest culprit is Maol Réidh/Mweelrea, also in Co Mayo. It is the highest mountain in the province of Connacht. Many people attempt this mountain (especially Dubliners) with no local guide or knowledge of local weather. The mountain is also steeped in folklore, so most local people around the mountain are afraid of it. The full hike is called the horseshoe and is 17km and takes up to 7 hours to complete. The only mountain hike longer in Ireland is Carrauntoohil at 8 hours if you do the full horseshoe. Carrauntoohil and Mweelrea alone have taken almost 60 (ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamachaí) lives since the 80s. That's only two mountains. And people are rescued from Irish mountains all the time.
Many people unfortunately do not understand how unpredictable Irish weather is. It doesn't matter what the forecast says. Irish weather can just turn completely arseways in an instant, and this often has a massive impact on people out in Irish nature. Luckily our most dangerous animals are cattle and deer, so most of the time you're safe. As long as you leave Na Daoine Maithe alone.
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u/Neverstopcomplaining Ireland 23d ago
Pretty much every year people need to be rescued on, Carrauntoohil, often on the Devils ladder in winter, poorly dressed and not heeding warnings.
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u/Brainwheeze Portugal 23d ago
This happens so often in Madeira that they've now started charging tourists that need rescuing. I'd always heard of stories of tourists that underestimate the nature trails there and/or who venture off to places with a higher risk of falling.
In the Algarve there are also people who walk too close to the edge of beach side cliffs and fall, or put their towls up against rocks that have a chance of falling. These aren't frequent ocurrences but they still happen from time to time.
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u/ihavenoidea1001 22d ago
Came here to talk about this.
In the Isles it got to the point that people had conspiracy theories about a potential serial killer targetting tourists... Eventough them dying due to going to places like the Levadas in flip-flops is far more likely.
Also tourists and jumping from balconies to a pool. It's not just a r/2westerneuropean4U joke... It's something that happens pretty much every single year at least a couple of times too.
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u/ristlincin 23d ago
Belgians get lost every year in the mountains in northern spain. I guess it looks similar to the ardennes, but there is way less people and much more height and fast changes of weather than there.
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u/tollis1 22d ago
This is the rescue OP is talking about. Broken femur, alone in horrible conditions for 6 days. Happy it went well: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8UML5XLQsOM&pp=ygUjQW1lcmljYW4gam91cm5hbGlzdCBmb3VuZCBpbiBub3J3YXk%3D
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u/MissKaneli Finland 22d ago
During winter weekly if not daily. Tourists are so unprepared for the arctic wilderness it's not even funny anymore. And this problem has gotten exponentially worse because of the EU. The freedoms of EU mean that basically anyone can start a safari company in Finnish Lapland. There is like 50 companies there that are run by people that 1. Have zero idea how to survive in -30c. 2. Do not know the area at all and 3. Seem to have zero common sense.
These safari companies risk the lives of their employees and the tourists taking them to the arctic wilderness. Luckily the government has finally realised the issue and they are working on a permit process that would force these companies to prove local survival knowledge.
There was an extensive article about this issue last winter. I believe few people died before the government realised it might be a bad idea if an Italian entrepreneur can just come here and decide to become a safari operator without any knowledge of the arctic wilderness and how to survive in it.
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u/Onnimanni_Maki Finland 22d ago
Tourists have not yet learned that you can solo travel in Lapland's wilderness so nearly every time it's Finn that needs rescuing.
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u/SnooBooks1701 United Kingdom 22d ago
As an island nation, it's usually water rescues. We have the RNLI for a reason, it's not just foreign tourists but inland Brits who don't understand water safety, the RNLI launched over 9,000 times last year, saving 400 lives and aided another 30,000 (about half via their lifeguards). The busiest rescue stations are the ones in the capital because of people falling in the river
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u/GubbinsMcRubbins 22d ago
Very common in New Zealand. We are not Norway but our weather (especially mountain weather) is very changeable. People set out for an alpine crossing (looking at you Tongariro Crossing) in jeans without proper warm gear and sometimes without food and water. My friend met a woman and child on top of the mountain in the freezing rain and strong wind who were both exhausted and wearing those plastic ponchos you buy to walk around a city in the drizzle. (Day walk). They didn’t have snacks or hats and the child was refusing to move. Their group gave them some gear and chocolate, and another hiker picked up the 6 year old and carried her off the mountain. They were lucky. People die in the mountains all the time. Since then there is a lot more education for tourists and transport operators try to stop people, but it happens still.
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u/blackcid6 Spain 21d ago edited 21d ago
Spain has to do more than 2000 rescues each year in the mountains and 4000+ at sea.
1- Common sense. If it's raining, don't go to the mountains; if it's windy, avoid the sea as well. Seriously, big waves are extremly dangerous, dont aproach then.
2- It's better not to be alone. If you fall into a hole and you're alone, good luck.
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21d ago
There is a small mountain near where I grew up, "Kullaberg" it is a bit steep at places and popular among climbers. When I was a child, when we heard a rescue helicopter we all said "oh it must be a Dane falling off the mountain again". And most often it was. I don't know why the Danes kept falling off but they did.
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u/Mountain_Cat_cold 21d ago
Denmark is famously flat and I don't think we have anywhere inland that could get people in any kind of serious trouble. But our shoreline is another thing entirely. People die or are rescued every year. One thing is people on SUP's and other floating devices who suddenly drift too far from shore because they have not taken notice of the wind going out from the shore. Another frequent issue is strong and unpredictable currents dragging people out.
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u/Melodic-Tutor-2172 20d ago
Yeah the mountain rescue in Scotland have to go out a retrieve utter muppets
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u/PckMan 20d ago
In Greece the problem is two fold. Obviously people get lost, fall down ravines or try to swim where they're not supposed to, but the state is also not doing its part with bad infrastructure, not adequate warnings, no proper medical care available in the countryside and no dedicated rescuers. So when something happens it's often exacerbated by the fact that emergency services response is poor, they're often not equipped to deal with certain situations and even if they manage to recover the person it's still a long trip to a half decent hospital.
Most cases of deaths involve people being unprepared for the summer heat, or drownings.
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u/Micek_52 Slovenia 24d ago
We have a stereotype about Czechs attempting to ascend Triglav in flip-flops.
So, yes, people do underestimate our mountains and come unprepared.