A 23-year-old Israeli tourist survived 24 hours inside the crevasse of a glacier near the city of Ushuaia, with a broken leg, arm and pelvis, until he could be rescued by rescuers during a complex helicopter operation, they confirmed today sources close to the case.
The young man identified as Eitan Shaked suffered an accident on Wednesday when he was climbing the Ojo del Albino glacier, located about 20 kilometers northeast of the Fuegian capital, during a solo excursion.
The mountaineer was trapped in a place with very difficult access, with “vertical gutters off the path,” explained spokesmen for the Relief Commission that intervened in the incident.
The only possibility of survival of the tourist, who due to the fall suffered injuries that immobilized him, arose when a mountain guide who was passing through the area heard his screams yesterday at noon.
“The guide heard cries from a person asking for help in a sector of difficult access, between the Esmeralda Lagoon and the Ojo del Albino glacier. With the site identified, a delegation of 7 rescuers, equipped with ropes and technical material, left for the place. for a rescue of several hours “, informed members of the Relief Commission.
Rescuers arrived at the scene several hours later and found the young man with “severe injuries, lacerations on his face and clear signs of fractures in his lower and upper limbs.”
In addition, he presented a delicate picture of hypothermia because he had spent the night in the place, in the middle of a stream of icy water that came down from the glacier.
After stabilizing him and placing him on a stretcher, members of the rescue team accepted the help of a private helicopter company from Ushuaia to complete the transfer in the shortest possible time.
The pilot of the Bolkow B 105 helicopter assigned to the task had to carry out the rescue without touching solid ground, due to the irregularity of the terrain, explained the spokesmen consulted.
“The operation was complex because there was no place for the helicopter to land. In addition, the rescuers had to climb a few meters up the mountain to achieve a better position that would allow contact with the ship.”, told the pilot Roberto Valdéz, from the HeliUshuaia company, to local media.
According to the brigadistas, the fortuitous fact that a guide just passed by who heard the cries for help, the good weather of the last days (with temperatures exceeding 10 degrees in the city) and the athletic state of the tourist, allowed that the rescue could be concluded successfully.
In any case, Shacked was referred to the guard of the Ushuaia Regional Hospital where he was diagnosed with a “fracture of the lower right limb, fracture of the upper right limb and fracture of the pelvis, and he had to undergo surgery to stabilize his injuries, before he was admitted to the hospital. been reserved, the sources concluded.
