The body of a British ice climber who got caught in an avalanche late last week was finally recovered and brought down from Gaustatoppen by emergency crews on Tuesday. Bad weather and treacherous conditions had frustrated their efforts since Friday.
The dead climber’s injured companion, also British, had been rescued Friday night and flown to hospital but crews couldn’t reach both. Heavy fog and zero visiblity then prevented helicopters from flying in the area and the recovery effort couldn’t fully resume until Tuesday morning.
They still couldn’t use helicopters, but emergency crews from both the police, fire- and regional ambulance services managed to reach the dead man’s body with the use of ropes and rapelling. “Difficult accessibility, bad weather and the risk of more snow- and rock slides made it a very complicated and demanding operation,” operations leader Tor Einar Bakken of the Sør-Øst Police District told state broadcaster NRK. “Unfortunately we only manged to save one of the two men.”
NewsinEnglish.no staff
