In recent years, mountain accidents have been frequently reported, drawing public attention. For the first time, the Ministry of Education is conducting a winter training session from today until February 1 in the vicinity of Shei-Pa National Park and Wuling Farm for seed personnel responsible for university safety across the 107 academic year. Thirty participants are attending, and the Ministry aims to cultivate individuals with proper mountaineering knowledge to make climbing safer.
Director Zheng Nai-wen of the Department of Student Affairs and Special Education at the Ministry of Education personally attended the opening ceremony. He expressed deep appreciation and encouragement for the participants’ proactive efforts in learning how to prevent cold-weather mountain accidents and enhance their self-rescue and rescue capabilities. He also hopes that the trainees will share the practical skills they’ve learned—such as self-protection, survival, and avoiding danger—with other members of their university mountaineering clubs, thereby improving overall mountaineering safety awareness.
Unlike summer mountaineering activities, winter expeditions require enduring the force of cold fronts, as well as resisting low temperatures and bone-chilling winds. Taiwan’s mountainous terrain is rugged and varied, with safety conditions in the highlands significantly and complexly influenced by weather factors.
In response, the Ministry of Education has specially invited university safety personnel (including military instructors) from across the country, as well as mountain adventure instructors and volunteer staff from counseling consultation teams at county and city liaison offices, to join this mountaineering safety training workshop. This initiative aims to strengthen participants' mountaineering safety training and reduce the occurrence of mountain accidents.
The training program is divided into two parts: specialized lectures and skill training. The content includes various snowfield hiking techniques combined with the use of ice axes and crampons, self-arrest methods for slipping, setting up artificial and natural anchors, large descents on snow and ice walls, cold-weather sheltering, handling getting lost, self-rescue techniques, and calling for help.
To simulate real mountaineering team compositions, participants were grouped by mixed ability levels. More experienced students served as assistant team leaders and guides, facilitating “decision-making” training through objectives set by team coaches.
Additionally, participants were specifically grouped by their schools’ regional locations to make mutual support easier when organizing post-training mountaineering workshops at their respective institutions. Moreover, this session also mixed school safety personnel and military instructors in groups. Aside from teaching mountaineering safety knowledge, it also allows for an exchange of experiences on how school administrations can support, assist, and guide students in completing mountaineering safety training, achieving a mutually beneficial teaching and learning environment.
(China Times)