Non-Negotiable Safety Lines: When to Stop, Descend, or Call for Help
Some conditions are not advisories. Altered consciousness, breathlessness at rest, a swelling throat, no breathing, major bleeding, an official warning, a closed area — on any of these you stop.
Stop and descend or call for help when someone has altered consciousness or an unsteady gait, is breathless at rest, has a swelling throat or lips, is unresponsive, or has major bleeding. The same applies to official weather warnings, thunder, rising water, closed areas, fire bans and missing permits. These are lines, not judgements to renegotiate on the mountain.
A red line is useful precisely because it removes the argument. When the condition appears, the decision has already been made — that is the whole point of writing it down before you leave.
Medical lines
- Altered consciousness, unsteady gait, not waking normally: treat as HACE or another emergency. Descend or call for help. Do not "see how they are in the morning".
- Breathless at rest, pink frothy sputum, blue lips: treat as HAPE. Descend or call for help now.
- Swelling of the throat or lips, wheeze, fainting (severe allergy): use the prescribed autoinjector immediately and call. Antihistamines are not a substitute.
- Not breathing, unresponsive: CPR and AED if available, and call for help.
- Major bleeding: direct pressure. A tourniquet only if trained, with the time recorded.
- Chest pain, stroke signs, seizure, drowning: treat as emergencies; call and evacuate.
Do not: diagnose, prescribe, give doses, borrow someone else's prescription, give anything by mouth to someone who is not fully alert, or use alcohol or sleeping tablets to "let them sleep".
Weather lines
- Official warnings for heavy rain, lightning, gale, heat, cold snap, flash flood or typhoon: change the plan. Do not gamble that "it will be local".
- Thunder heard: leave ridges, summits, open water and isolated trees. Reroute or descend.
- Rising, turbid or fast water: do not cross.
- Whiteout, or high avalanche danger: do not enter the slope and do not continue up.
Rules and legal lines
- Closed areas, fire bans, reserve closures, camping or drone prohibitions: do not go.
- No permit, reservation or border pass: do not enter. Do not cross private land.
- Drones: check local, reserve and park rules first. Default is not to fly.
- Do not damage fixed gear, rock faces, heritage sites or vegetation. Do not feed wildlife.
Team lines
- Never leave a deteriorating person alone on the mountain. No "we'll split up and meet at camp".
- Leave a trip plan and a check-in time. When it lapses, the alarm procedure starts.
- If anyone says "I think this is wrong", the team stops and listens. Authority and conformity are not evidence.
A script for saying it out loud
We are not continuing. The reason is X — altered consciousness, breathlessness at rest, an official warning, a closure, no permit. We are doing Y now — descending, calling for help, warming, applying pressure. We are not doing Z — waiting for daylight, taking pills and pushing on. If A happens, we do B.
Written lines are what stop a group when everyone is tired and nobody wants to be the one who says it.