Mountain Volunteer Search and Rescue is a partially volunteer and non-profit Mountain rescue

Mountain rescue

Mountain rescue refers to search and rescue activities that occur in a mountainous environment, although the term is sometimes also used to apply to search and rescue in other wilderness environments. The difficult and remote nature of the terrain in which mountain rescue often occurs has resulted...

 organisation in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, helping people endangered while in the mountains; and preventing accidents as well as protecting wildlife. GOPR is divided into seven divisions, one for every major mountain range

Mountain range

A mountain range is a single, large mass consisting of a succession of mountains or narrowly spaced mountain ridges, with or without peaks, closely related in position, direction, formation, and age; a component part of a mountain system or of a mountain chain...

 in Poland. The headquarters of GOPR are situated in Zakopane

Zakopane

Zakopane , is a town in southern Poland. It lies in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998 it was in of Nowy Sącz Province, but since 1999 it has been in Lesser Poland Province. It had a population of about 28,000 as of 2004. Zakopane is a...

. The Service acts legally, based on the parliament act Ustawa o kulturze fizycznej. It employs 104 full-time workers, 1307 voluntary workers and 219 candidates. Each rescuer is obliged to pass the exam to be assigned for duties.

History

The first attempts to create a mountain rescue service in the partitioned Poland

Partitions of Poland

The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...

 took place in 1909. The team for Tatra Mountains

Tatra Mountains

The Tatra Mountains, Tatras or Tatra , are a mountain range which forms a natural border between Slovakia and Poland, and are the highest mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains...

 was the only one in Poland till 1952, when the new rescue groups were created to cover all the mountain areas in Poland. The uniformed organisation was founded with the new structure and affiliated to PTTK

PTTK

Polskie Towarzystwo Turystyczno-Krajoznawcze, PTTK, is a Polish non-governmental tourist organization founded in 1950...

 - Polish Tourist Association. In 1956, there were 5 separate groups parented by PTTK. In 2008, Polish GOPR conducted over 4,000 operations, helping 4,404 people.

Local groups

GOPR operates in the total area of 20 410 km² in all major mountain ranges in Poland. They maintain 7 200 km of hiking trails and 425 ski objects. The corps is divided into the following groups:

• Karkonosze
  Karkonosze
  Krkonoše is a mountain range located in the north of the Czech Republic and the south-west of Poland, part of the Sudetes mountain system . The Czech-Polish border, which divides the historic regions of Bohemia and Silesia, runs along the main ridge...
  
   Group
• Bieszczady Group
• Beskidy Group
• Jura
  Polish Jura Chain
  The Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, also known as the Polish Jurassic Highland or Polish Jura , is part of the Jurassic System of south–central Poland, stretching between the cities of Kraków, Częstochowa and Wieluń...
  
   Group
• Krynica Group
• Podhale
  Podhale
  The Podhale is Poland's most southern region, sometimes referred to as the "Polish highlands". The Podhale is located in the foothills of the Tatra range of the Carpathian mountains, and is characterized by a rich tradition of folklore that is much romanticized in the Polish patriotic imagination...
  
   Group
• Group Wałbrzych - Kłodzko