Providing adequate and effective rescue to people in difficulty can often be a challenge. But the challenge becomes truly demanding when rescue must be carried out in a hostile environment: high altitudes, rock walls, isolated mountain trails and huts, inaccessible places out of reach for traditional emergency vehicles. I have documented from the inside some moments of these special operations in the Dolomites, one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the area considered to be the most beautiful in the Italian Alps. In this case (rescue intervention for injured climbers at an altitude of 3000 meters) the rescue helicopter disembarked doctor and nurse along the trail that climbs the mountain to a mountain hut, in order to lighten the helicopter. Along this path, some 4WD vehicles are arriving with mountain rescue technicians who will board the helicopter and then be winched onto the ledge where the wounded are stuck. Once the wounded have been retrieved, the helicopter will take them to the trail where doctor and nurse can administer first treatment. In this image the helicopter is re-landing on the trail to embark more personnel: one of the mountain rescue technicians, the only one standing (the others are all crouched down) because he is in charge of checking that the road is free of obstacles, observes his colleagues at work on the rock wall while waiting for the helicopter to land, but actually seems to observe the helicopter itself.