An Indian climber who had fallen into a crevasse while descending Nepal’s Mount Annapurna, the world’s 10th-highest peak, was rescued Thursday after three days of searching.
Anurag Maloo, 34, was found about 984 feet down into the crevasse, which is about 19,600 feet up the 26,000-foot mountain. His rescuers consisted of a team of six Nepali sherpas, aided by Polish climbers Adam Bielecki and Mariusz Hatala.
Mr. Maloo was subsequently airlifted to a hospital, and is currently in a coma and connected to a ventilator in the intensive care unit.
Video posted by the Indian Express newspaper on Twitter showed Mr. Maloo covered in snow within the crevasse.
Mr. Bielecki said he was happily surprised to find Mr. Maloo alive.
Mountaineer Anurag Maloo, who went missing while descending Mount Annapurna, has been found alive. The rescue mission was no less perilous than the expedition — Maloo was rescued from a deep crevasse, 300 metres below the 6,000-metre point.https://t.co/3ehqDsJB8D pic.twitter.com/NUe4EKoeLs
— The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) April 20, 2023
“I thought I was looking for a body in that crevasse … then I realized that he was alive,” Mr. Bielecki told climbing and mountaineering community website ExplorersWeb.
Mr. Maloo decided to descend due to sickness Monday, only to fall when using a too-short rope.
Eyewitness and Brazilian climber Moeses Fiamoncini described the events to ExplorersWeb. Mr. Maloo, Mr. Fiamoncini, and a sherpa had reached a section requiring a 26.2 foot rappel.
While Mr. Fiamoncini successfully rappelled, Mr. Maloo’s rope was too short.
“When I finished, I looked up and saw, to my horror, that Maloo was rappelling on a very short rope … I shouted to him, telling him to stop, to look at the rope, but he didn’t. He fell when the rope ended, and he hit the hard ice [3.2 feet] to the right of me and immediately slid down, rolling, for some more [feet] until he disappeared in the crevasse. I was horrified,” Mr. Fiamoncini explained.
While the fall injured Mr. Maloo, the crevasse may also have played a role in keeping him alive over the course of the three days he was missing.
“A crevasse is warmer and well protected from wind. So if he was not badly injured, it’s not unusual that he survived in a crevasse,” Amit Chowdhury, a board member of the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation, told the BBC.
Mr. Maloo was climbing Mount Annapurna as part of a quest to conquer all 14 mountains above 26,426 feet in order to raise awareness for United Nations sustainable development goals.
