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Kilian Jornet & Emelie Forsberg rescued fromAiguille du Midi
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Home › Forums › General Forums › General Lightweight Backpacking Discussion › Kilian Jornet & Emelie Forsberg rescued fromAiguille du Midi
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Sep 9, 2013 at 10:44 pm #1307504
more at link
http://iancorless.org/2013/09/08/kilian-jornet-emelie-forsberg-rescued-from-mont-blanc/
In the evening of Saturday 7th September, PGHM had to land from a caravan to recover
two “climbers”, a man and a woman on the North Face of the
Aiguille du Midi in Chamonix on the Frendo Spur. Called in the late afternoon, rescuers were unable to take off with the helicopter service due to bad weather announced for nearly a week.But what the team of the Gendarmerie mountaineering Chamonix does not say (as is the rule in Gendarmerie) is the identity of one of the rescued: the icon of the trail and ski mountaineering Kilian Jornet. The woman who accompanied him (Emelie Forsberg) was dressed lightly. The issue in the world of mountaineering is: when are tights and sneakers appropriate on the North Face of Mont Blanc?
They have been warned repeatedly. Jean-Louis Verdier (guide and assistant in charge of security in the mountains, Chamonix) stated that, “mountain practice must be undertaken with adequate equipment so that you can face bad weather. I’m very angry when I see the continued rise of sneakers despite our requests”. Guides are repeatedly angry as the meet more and more trailers in sneakers as they follow Kilian Jornet in the examples he gives on the route of Mont Blanc. They all run a great risk as they follow the Catalan hero.
Sep 9, 2013 at 11:29 pm #2023616In wondering how accurate the translation of "sneakers" is, but it doesn't look like a place for untrained or improperly equipped climbers.
Sep 10, 2013 at 12:13 am #2023618del
Sep 10, 2013 at 4:00 am #2023625Killian is an experience climber and he write in his blog a more detailed explanation about the incident.
http://www.kilianjornet.cat/en/blog
About the shoes, i read somewere that killian uses some special prototypes to be used in snow and cold temperatures… in fact he carried technical crampons….
Sep 10, 2013 at 6:04 am #2023636What would you have done differently Eric?
Sep 10, 2013 at 7:17 am #2023647… go SUL … plan for best case rather than worst case … no backup plan … get rescued (the lucky ending) … sounds like a scenario that could fit a lot of people on this site …
sh$t rarely just happens, it is created.
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:03 am #2023669What would you have done differently Eric?
stayed at home and watched TV =P
everyone takes risks, ive done easy climbs with minimal gear and equipment … depending on my ability not to fall
in the off season though i generally take enough gear to survive the night, in squamish that generally means a light emergency bag … in other places it means taking a blizzard bag … remember that even if you call for a rescue, SAR may not be able to reach you till the next day
my personal opinion is that i prefer not to depend on SAR to save my azz if a i went a bit too light … if im capable of getting down without calling them i will … 3 months ago i blew my achilles on a climb, i rapped and crawled out a few hundred vertical metres … of course if i was much more serious or deeper in the wilderness i would have likely pressed the big red button
i think that in some places with good communications, well established SAR, … that people knowingly take certain risks with the idea that they can get rescued if anything goes wrong
my view on a climb or anything else is that you should always have the ability to get down or out yourself … the big red button is a last resort, and not something you depend on if the conditions turn
;)
more on the story
http://www.chamonix.net/english/news/PGHM-Chamonix-Rescue-Kilian-Jornet
On Sunday morning, Killian Jornet issued a message on his personal blog, admitting the unnecessary risk he took with this venture, so poorly equipped and in such poor weather conditions. He hopes it is a warning other climbers:
"On September 7, I decided to climb a route on the north face of the Aiguille de Midi, the Frendo Spur, a route that I had climbed previously in light gear. I took all the necessary climbing equipment (for ice and rock), and we were on schedule to finish the route before the bad weather arrived. I was too short-sighted not to take more jackets and to think that the weather would be friendly.
On the final rock face, we lost a lot of time, as we took the wrong route. This forced us to descend and take the good route. 50 meters from the summit of the Aiguille de Midi, seeing the weather degenerating fast, I decided that continuing the ascent could endanger my life and the life of my companion. I called the PGHM. They assisted us to the top of the Aiguille du Midi.
I want to take this opportunity to thank PGHM Chamonix staff for their very professional and efficient mountain rescue work.This is a warning: ascending the mountain is difficult and, even if you are careful and meticulous with planning, it can be dangerous. We must be humble when climbing because even the tiniest error, especially when we take it easy and disconsider the possible dangers, can be fatal."
Sep 10, 2013 at 10:37 am #2023700To me, this looks like the classic example SAR uses to lament the growing use of cell phones and SPOTS (or PLB's) to call for help from people who entered the wilderness woefully unprepared. My question to these two climbers would be "Would you have prepared differently if you knew you could not call for help?" If the answer is yes, then they owe SAR an apology. We have a responsibility to not do stupid things that end up making other people risk their lives to save ours. Crap happens to even the most prepared people, but when SAR has to rescue you because you deliberately chose to go under-prepared, that's disrespectful to the men and women in SAR because you're essentially saying that you don't have any regard for their life or safety. That's my POV.
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