Mountaineer saved by a drone

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COT

climber

Door Number 3

Topic Author's Original Post - Jul 16, 2018 - 07:34am PT

I generally despise drones (and I am a film maker), but Rick Allen was spotted by a drone off route during a solo descent from Broad Peak and later rescued after spending 36 hours without food or water or water.

https://dronedj.com/2018/07/16/mountaineer-rick-allen-was-feared-dead-on-broad-peak-but-a-dji-mavic-pro-drone-found-him-alive/

The highly respected Alan Arnette website reported David Roeske saying:

“Yesterday just as @fredrikstrang and I were about to leave after a night at camp 3 (7,000 m), we heard a radio call that a missing climber needed rescue high on the mountain. He had fallen off an ice cliff, and been solo on the mountain for 36 hours without a stove to melt water. The climber had been presumed dead until a drone pilot from K2 basecamp spotted him still moving and off route. We headed first down then up the mountain with rope, water, and medicine looking for him and were later joined by Tenji Sherpa from Summit Climb. With the help of the drone pilot we were able to eventually locate him in very dangerous terrain — a fall would’ve taken him either down a crevasse or all the way to the base of the mountain — and the three of us got him down and into a tent at camp 3 just as it was getting dark. Then the Summit Climb team took over.”

More details of the rescue are provided in a follow-up on Sandy Allen’s blog. It states that:

“Sandy and Rick are now both back at Base Camp following a couple of days making a summit attempt. Sandy returned back to camp himself after deciding to descend due to high winds. The rest of the team stayed at Camp 3 and considered their options for the summit. Rick made a summit attempt on 9th July after climbing all day and night. Rick was missing from the group and feared injured from 9th July until he was spotted by a drone, piloted by climbers at K2 Base Camp on July 10th.”

With the help of Andrej Berdel and his brother Bartek and their drone, Sandy was able to direct climbers on Broad Peak to the Rick Allen’s location right before darkness set in. Rick was safely brought back to Base Camp on June 12th with the help of Dan Mazur and his sherpas. Andrzej Bargiel posted that it was his brother who controlled the drone,

“My brother Bartek Bargiel flight his drone up to 8400m! Is that some kind of world record?”

Luckily Rick only suffered a few superficial cuts and some frostnip and was declared ok after an examination by a doctor at the base camp.