At 12:04, the 112 emergency number received a report of an injured person on inaccessible terrain above Malo Ezero, below the antennas on Pelister. The man had fractures in both shins, he was conscious, but he was bleeding whenever he was moved.

From that moment to the moment a doctor stood beside him, roughly an hour and a half passed.

How it unfolded

Immediately after the report came in, the regional crisis management centre in Bitola notified every relevant service: the emergency medical service, the Bitola police department, the Protection and Rescue Directorate, the territorial fire unit and the Pelister National Park. A Protection and Rescue crew from Bitola set off towards the injured man, while a National Park crew moved in at the same time.

At 13:45 the two crews met at a spot known as Lovečka Kuća, where a doctor from the Bitola emergency service treated the injured man. He was then transported to the Pelister info centre and from there, with an emergency medical crew, to the clinical hospital in Bitola. By off-road vehicle, because nothing else gets up there.

The Crisis Management Centre coordinated the intervention and stayed in contact with all services until the transport was fully complete.

What worked here

This is worth saying plainly, because it is said so rarely: this is a case where the system worked. A call to 112, coordination, two crews sent in from two directions, a meeting at an agreed point, a doctor on the ground, transport to hospital. No improvisation, no waiting.

Pelister is not a gentle hill with a marked walking trail - Malo Ezero sits below the summit, the ground is rock, and between the info centre and the accident site there is nothing resembling a road. A man with both shins broken in a place like that cannot get down on his own, and he cannot be carried quickly either.

The question that remains is not about this operation but the next one: how many such crews does the country have, and across how many parks and mountains can they be at once? Because not one of these rescuers is up there as a full-time mountain rescuer - they are people assigned to other duties who, at 12:04, started walking uphill.

When an operation succeeds, the worst thing we can do is conclude the problem is solved.