A howling blizzard, the temperature is 12 degrees below zero. Visibility zero, extreme risk of avalanches, graded as five out of five. A Danish family on a cross-country skiing excursion in the Sylarna area is reported missing. At nightfall they have still not returned to the lodge.There is an imminent risk that they have lost their bearings in the storm.The missing family may just as well be in Norway as in Sweden – the borderline cuts straight through the Sylarna massif. The mountain rescue is called out. This minor scenario is far from a fantasy,and had it happened a few years earlier, the search could have been very complicated. At that time the collaboration between the Swedish and Norwegian mountain rescue was highly insufficient and there were no possibilities of radio communication between the teams. Today it is far easier to rescue people in distress in the border mountains.Within the project Mountain rescue in the border mountains - ‘Fjällräddning i Gränsfjäll’, the mountain rescue organisations in the two countries have joined forces.– We have used the best from both sides, says Lars Jørgen Berg, project leader from Meraker. In Norway, the mountain rescue operations are run on voluntary grounds by Norsk Folkehjelp and the Red Cross. They haveaccess to experienced locals with good training in first aid and crisis management. In Sweden the police is the responsible authority for the mountain rescue.– The Swedish mountain rescue patrols are well trained and better organised and within the project,we have had joint training and several successful practice sessions together, says Lars Jørgen Berg who is also very satisfied with the new communal emergency channel on the communications radio system, which is another result of the project. – Now that we have the same equipment and the same training, our own work will be safer. The mountain rescue operations often entail great risks to ourselves. The project has been so well received that the idea hasspread to other border mountain regions and will probably serve as the model for mountain rescue throughout the Scandinavian border mountains.