While ascending Slovakia’s highest peak, Gerlachovsky Stit in the High Tatras, a Czech mountaineer survived a death-defying fall of 1,000 metres on Wednesday.
The man fall some 50 metres while ascending the 2,655-metre peak before hitting the slope, and then tumbled down the steep slope for almost a kilometer. A rescue helicopter was sent in after his companion called the emergency services number 112, which alerted the Mountain Rescue Service.
The man was then taken to Poprad hospital, where he is said to be out of danger, although he is badly injured. The mountain rescue service said the man was exceptionally lucky to have survived such a fall.
His companion then also requested assistance as he had become disoriented, probably due to the shock. The rescue work was made more difficult by high winds, fresh snow and avalanches. Climbers therefore had to risk their own lives by climbing up to the man. They then carried him down the slope where an avalanche had just hit, as this was then deemed the safest route.