Safety rules

Preparing to depart

• Choose a route and task suited to your training, health and equipment. Before departure, study the terrain, difficulty, escape routes and weather forecast; check avalanche, mudflow and route closure warnings. Postpone departure in dangerous conditions.
• Tell close contacts your route and expected return time. Learn how to notify local rescue services. A VRS website record does not replace contacting emergency services.
• Take suitable footwear, warm and waterproof layers, spare water and food, a first-aid kit, a torch with spare power, a charged phone, a power bank and navigation equipment. Save an offline map in advance.

Mountain safety

• Travel as a group, stay in contact and never leave someone alone. Follow the known route and avoid shortcuts across hazardous slopes. Allow for fatigue and time before dark.
• If weather, visibility or health deteriorates, stop in a safe place and consider returning. Avoid ridges and exposed high ground during thunderstorms.
• Do not enter avalanche-prone slopes, glaciers, unstable rock or dangerous crossings without appropriate training and equipment. Footprints or a map line do not prove that passage is safe.

Taking part in rescue operations

• Volunteer registration does not certify qualifications or authorise technical rescue work. Before a task, obtain an on-site briefing and instructions from the operation leader; disclose health and training limitations.
• Report your group composition and departure route. Work within your training and inform the leader of changes. Stop actions that create immediate danger to you or others and submit a report.
• Rope work, work at height, in water, rubble, smoke, near electricity or hazardous substances must be carried out by trained specialists with appropriate protection. Do not enter such areas on your own.
• Check equipment before use. Do not use damaged equipment or unfamiliar technical methods. Consider vehicles, rockfall, unstable structures and other hazards; stay outside cordoned areas.
• Coordinate drone flights with the operation leader and aircrews. Do not launch a drone near a working helicopter without authorisation from responsible specialists. Do not approach a helicopter without crew instructions.

Communications, reports and returning

• Before departure, check communication equipment and the group's reporting procedure. Be brief: identify yourself, location, time, observations and assistance needed. Distinguish personal observations from assumptions and second-hand information.
• Provide the time and an explanation with coordinates: incident location, observation point or your own position. Do not publish personal contacts, medical information or photos of casualties publicly.
• Report discoveries, hazards, route changes and return. Check that everyone in the group has returned. Registering a departure does not enable automatic tracking of your movements.

If emergency help is needed

• If life is in danger, call 112. State the location, nature of the incident, number of people and a way to contact you. The website form does not replace an emergency call.
• Assess hazards at the location first. Help only within your training and follow dispatchers' and rescuers' instructions. Do not put yourself at risk or move an injured person unnecessarily if the location is safe.
• If you lose your bearings, stop moving towards danger, establish contact and give known landmarks. Conserve phone power and stay in a safe place while following rescuers' instructions.

Sources and application

The VRS guidance takes account of Kazakhstan's Ministry of Emergency Situations recommendations and volunteer participation rules. Organisational requirements apply to VRS work.

• Emergency Ministry: preparation, equipment and mountain safety
• Emergency Ministry: mountain conduct rules
• VRS: volunteer participation rules

Registration records the acknowledgement date, version number and checksum of the rules text.