- Three 18-year-old Parisians decided to bivouac on Wednesday on the heights of Luchon in the Pyrenees.
- Lack of suitable equipment, the hike turned into a nightmare.
- It ended well with a perilous rescue operated by the gendarmes of the High Mountain Gendarmerie Platoon.
They are 18, the carelessness of their youth, the habit of urban acrobatics in Paris and thirst for adventure. Three young holidaymakers were probably afraid of their lives on Wednesday evening before being hoisted, refrigerated, by a crew from the Peloton de gendarmerie haute montagne (PGHM) of Luchon, in the Hautes-Garonne Pyrenees.
"They hitchhiked and intended to make a beautiful bivouac on a summit, around 3,000 meters, probably at the Pic des Spijeoles [above the beautiful frozen lake of Oô] with a 360-degree view," says the Major Sébastien Lucéna, the head of unit.
No cleats, no rope
Except that this winter, decidedly too mild, has lured them. "They had a tent, large backpacks with good warm clothing," continues the constable. But on the feet, two had summer hiking shoes, the third simple sneakers. ” A priori enough to start the climb when the sun is shining, it can sometimes be 20 ° C, and that we are wedged in the footsteps of previous hikers as we would rely on stairs.
But not when the winter cold comes back, when there are more snow patches, and the slope becomes a vertical ice rink. Without crampons, rope or ice ax, the three friends found themselves "stranded, like a cat in a tree, unable to climb or descend".
A good lesson
The reckless trio gave the alert around 9 p.m. Via the emergency number 112 in this area where the network is random. The helicopter of the Tarbes gendarmerie air detachment (GAG) took off at 9:30 pm, in a "dark night", with night vision binoculars to locate the headlamps of the young people.
The PGHM rescuers had to be first hoisted to join the hikers and progress slowly with them. At 12:30 am, everyone had returned safely to the base. "We lent them a room, they slept until 10:30 the next day," said Major Lucéna. When they woke up, he held them for two more hours, "for a little discussion". "A fall could have had terrible consequences," recalls the constable who, without hard feelings, hopes to have aroused among them vocations of mountain rescuer.
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Hautes-Pyrénées: Blocked for two days at 2,600 m above sea level, three hikers rescued
- Gendarmerie
- Toulouse
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- Pyrenees
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