The enemy is not the fall, it is being stranded.
This is the most surprising figure in the SAC mountain emergency statistics for 2025: of almost 4'000 people rescued from mountain emergencies, around 1'500 were completely uninjured — 38 % of everyone rescued, and 84 % of them were simply stranded. These people did not fall. They were standing somewhere with no way forward and no way back, because they had left the marked trail and it was getting dark. At the same time, mountain hiking is the mountain sport with the most fatalities: 36 deaths in 2025, more than high-alpine tours (23) and ski tours (22), and 46 % of all mountain emergencies involve hiking. Death almost always comes through the fall — and the fall comes when you are tired and improvising. The game reproduces exactly this distribution: the frequent penalty is being stranded, not death.
The chain is always the same.
It gets later than planned. The trail is no longer obvious. You take the shortcut. The terrain turns out steeper than it looked from above. And at some point there is no way forward and no way back. Every link in this chain is a decision, and every single one feels reasonable in the moment. The decision that wins the game is the least spectacular one: turn around. « When in doubt, turn back », write the Swiss Hiking Trail Federation. The second best: dial 1414 before it gets dark. And the most important rule of this game: the emergency call is never punished. 1'500 people rescued uninjured every year are the proof that « I don't want to bother anyone » is the more dangerous attitude.
What really happens in 72 hours
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09:40 — The valley station.
The signpost is yellow, but the continuation is white-red-white: mountain hiking trail. For this marking, the Swiss norm SN 640 829a explicitly requires that you are sure-footed and free from vertigo, in good physical condition, wearing sturdy boots — and carrying a topographic map. On a mountain hiking trail the map is not a prepper quirk, it is part of the requirement. The signpost reads « Ridge Hut 3 h 15 ». That is pure walking time; breaks come on top. (Sources: SN 640 829a; Swiss Hiking Trail Federation.)
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13:30 — The ridge, and twenty minutes behind.
The swisstopo rule of thumb reckons 15 minutes per kilometre, plus 15 minutes per 100 metres of ascent, plus 5 to 10 minutes of break per hour. Anyone who does the maths notices here for the first time that the numbers no longer add up. Anyone who doesn't notices at 16:30. At the same time it is getting colder: temperature decreases with altitude by an average of 0,65 °C per 100 metres — a thousand metres of ascent is six to seven degrees, plus wind. On the ridge the game is decided for the first time: turn around or go on. (Sources: swisstopo time planning; MeteoSwiss.)
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15:00 — The fog.
Clouds push over the ridge, visibility drops to thirty metres, and the markings are suddenly gone. The official J+S manual for mountain sports says, for exactly this moment: in case of deviations, stop, orient yourself, if necessary go back to the last known point. And: « Use the instruments before you can no longer see anything. » The « STOPP rule » circulating online, incidentally, is not in there — it comes from the Anglo-American world and is not a Swiss recommendation. (Source: J+S manual for mountain sports, FOSPO.)
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16:30 — The shortcut.
The 17:52 PostBus is out of reach, your legs are shaking, and there are lights down below. In between: 600 metres of meadow and scree. From here it looks doable — and that is exactly the trap. The map only shows the average slope gradient; between the contour lines there can be short, steeper sections, and small vertical rock bands are barely recognisable. From above you don't see them at all. This is the moment in which 1'500 people a year become stranded. (Sources: J+S manual for mountain sports; SAC mountain emergency statistics 2025.)
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19:30 — Dusk, and the question of location.
Now only one thing counts: does anyone know where you are? Rega cannot simply locate your phone. Cell-tower localisation is only possible if an emergency call was made within the last two hours — and in the mountains it can be dozens of kilometres off. There is no background tracking. Your location is not information that someone has. It is information that you give: coordinates and altitude, plus the local place name, the valley and the municipality. And if you told nobody where you were going, nobody searches. (Sources: Rega Q&A; J+S manual for mountain sports.)
The deadliest mistakes
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The shortcut on the descent.
The most expensive mistake on the mountain — and the most common. Of around 1'500 people rescued uninjured in 2025, 84 % were stranded: they could go neither forward nor back. Almost always because they had left the marked trail. The reason is not recklessness but an optical illusion: the national map shows an average slope gradient, and from above rock bands are invisible. A signposted mountain hiking trail never leads anywhere you cannot continue — off-trail, you no longer have that guarantee.
Protects you: Packing an emergency bag Getting around in an emergency
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No map, just a phone.
Offline maps solve the network problem — not the power problem. The J+S manual for mountain sports puts it unambiguously: « A digital map always needs power », and « for the way, the printed national map is often a safer data storage medium ». On top of that: « GPS does not see obstacles (such as crevasses or rock barriers). You have to have the map with you. » BFU and SAC independently recommend a paper or offline map in addition to the phone, and norm SN 640 829a requires it on the white-red-white trail anyway.
Protects you: Packing an emergency bag
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Telling nobody where you're going.
The quietest mistake. SAC and BFU both recommend the same thing: inform people you trust about your destination, route and return — and check back in once you're home. The reason is mechanical, not sentimental: if your phone is dead or you have no reception, that message is the only information that triggers a search at all. Without it, someone notices you're missing on Monday at the earliest. « Gone hiking » in a chat group is not a report, it's a greeting.
Protects you: Family emergency plan
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Not setting a turnaround time — or not keeping it.
« We've already come this far » is the sentence that starts the chain. The BFU names as a core cause that hikers overestimate their own abilities or misjudge risks. The antidote costs nothing: before setting off, fix a time at which you turn around — no matter where you are. That includes knowing the last train or the last PostBus and planning time reserves and escape options. The times on signposts are pure walking time; breaks come on top.
Protects you: Family emergency plan
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The fall in the dark.
Mountain hiking is the mountain sport with the most fatalities (36 in 2025, SAC — more than high-alpine tours with 23 and ski tours with 22), and death almost always comes through the fall. The fall doesn't come out of nowhere: it comes when your legs are tired, when it's dark and when the trail is already no longer a trail. A headlamp with spare batteries is on the SAC equipment list and the BFU packing list — it's light, it's cheap, and it exists for exactly this hour.
Protects you: Packing an emergency bag
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Calling too late — out of embarrassment.
The mistake nobody talks about. « I don't want to bother anyone » sounds modest and is dangerous: being recovered uninjured is not a failure, it is Switzerland's most common mountain emergency — around 1'500 cases a year. The Rega rule of thumb is simple: dial 1414 when a helicopter can be on site faster than any other means of rescue. In the canton of Valais, 144 applies instead of 1414. And the rescue is not tied to patron status — the costs are settled only after the operation. Above all: Rega needs daylight. A call at 17:00 is a different operation from one at 22:00.
Protects you: Emergency contacts
Radio in the blackout — your fallback
On the mountain, almost everything that saves you hangs on your phone battery — except the map, the compass, the signposts and your eyes. These four levels count in the game as they do in reality:
- The signposts (free, but only on the trail). The location fields on the yellow signposts are based on the national map 1:25'000 and give place or field names and the altitude, sometimes also coordinates. They are the only information channel that costs nothing and cannot break. Important: the times are pure hiking time — breaks are not included. swisstopo additionally recommends 5 to 10 minutes of break per hour.
- Map and compass (free, always). The official Swiss technique is in the J+S manual for mountain sports: fold the map so that your position and the next stretch are on top. Turn the map so that it matches the terrain. Track your position continuously with your thumb. And keep comparing reality (what is) with what the map leads you to expect (what should be). In Switzerland the compass technique is called the « 3-point rule » — not « cross bearing »; the official leaflet does not know that term. On the national map 1:25'000, two contour lines are 20 metres apart in the Alps, 10 in the Central Plateau and the Jura.
- The phone (exact — as long as there's power). The swisstopo app stores maps offline for free and without limit. That solves the network problem, not the power problem. The J+S manual names the drawbacks: « A digital map always needs power », small displays lack the overview, and at low temperatures the screen can develop problems or fail. GPS accuracy is generally within ±10 metres; steep walls and trees impede the measurement, and GPS measures altitude two to three times less precisely than position.
- The 1414 emergency call (and what it needs). When raising the alarm, the Rega app transmits your GPS location directly to the operations centre — for that it needs GPS, an activated location permission and a mobile connection. Without a network, the alpine distress signal remains: six signals per minute, one minute pause, repeat; the answer is three signals per minute. On the phone the reporting scheme applies: where, who, what, how many people affected, the situation on site, the weather — and hazards for air rescue, such as cables. Then keep the line free and wait for the callback.
The maxim of this game: your location is not information that someone has. It is information that you give. Rega cannot simply locate your phone — cell-tower localisation only works if you made an emergency call within the last two hours, and in the mountains it can be dozens of kilometres off. Background tracking does not exist. Therefore: pass on the coordinates in « Swiss Grid » format, together with the altitude in metres — and always the local place name, the valley and the municipality too. If a digit is misheard, the operations centre otherwise has nothing.
More in our radio section: Radio and communication Emergency contacts Current situation
Frequently asked questions
Is the scenario realistic?
The frame yes, the story no. Calibrated against documented facts are: the mountain emergency statistics 2025, the three trail categories and their norm requirements, the SAC hiking scale T1–T6 in its 2023 version, the walking-time rule of thumb, the temperature gradient, the hypothermia stages, the 30-30 rule for thunderstorms, raising the alarm including the Rega app and cell-tower localisation, the alpine distress signal, the contour intervals of the national maps, LV95 and LV03 as well as the entire orientation technique. Invented are: the specific mountain, the route, the characters, the dialogue and the PostBus time. The stage and daylight figures are a reasoned estimate based on the swisstopo rule of thumb — this is disclosed in the methodology box at the end of every run.
Why is being stranded more important than falling?
Because the statistics say so. In 2025 almost 4'000 people were rescued from mountain emergencies; around 1'500 of them were uninjured — 38 % of everyone rescued, and 84 % of them were stranded. At the same time there were 36 deaths in mountain hiking. Both are true and both are in the game: mountain hiking is the mountain sport with the most fatalities, and yet the far more common outcome of a mountain emergency is that someone is standing somewhere uninjured and cannot get any further. That is why, in the game, being stranded is the frequent penalty and the fall is the rare but only path to death.
Does the game punish me if I call 1414?
No — and that is not a kindness, it is a tested promise. In the whole game there is no outcome in which the emergency call is worse than any other decision; an automated test verifies this on every change. The reason is substantive: around 1'500 people rescued uninjured per year show that « I don't want to bother anyone » is the more dangerous attitude. The Rega rule of thumb is: dial 1414 when a helicopter can be on site faster than any other means of rescue. In Valais it is 144. Only the timing matters: Rega needs daylight.
Does white-red-white equal T3?
No, and this is the most widespread piece of misinformation on the topic. In 2023 the SAC explicitly abandoned the sharp mapping of trail colour to T grade: the categories are « no longer assigned to individual T grades in sharply delimited fashion, but merge into one another ». The mapping table was deliberately removed. As a rough approximation the SAC does state that white-red-white mostly lies in the T2/T3 range — but expressly with the addition that in practice one often finds deviations downwards and upwards. The tables circulating online as official are not. Moreover, every T rating only applies to favourable conditions: wet, in fog or with old snow, a T3 is no longer a T3.
What is the « STOPP rule » — and why doesn't it appear?
Because it is not a Swiss recommendation. « S.T.O.P. » (Stop – Think – Observe – Plan) comes from the Anglo-American outdoor and hunting context and cannot be found in any Swiss primary source — not at the SAC, not at the BFU, not at the Swiss Hiking Trail Federation, not at swisstopo. In substance it is compatible, but it circulates on the German-language internet as a supposedly official rule. The documented Swiss equivalent is in the J+S manual for mountain sports: in case of deviations, stop, orient yourself, if necessary go back to the last known point. Plus the sentence that sums it all up: « Whoever does not know where they are standing cannot say where they are going. »
Does the game store data?
No. The game stores nothing: no cookie, no account, no sign-up, no tracking. Your progress lives exclusively in the address (URL) of this page — close the tab and it's gone. You can share the URL or bookmark it to carry on from exactly this point; it contains no personal data, only your decisions so far.