Hiker feared dead on Swedish glacier
Rescue workers in northern Sweden struggled through Thursday and on Friday morning to find a hiker who fell into a deep glacial crevice in the Sarek National Park.
The 50-year-old Swedish man from Gothenburg was hiking with a woman when he tumbled into the fissure on the Skorki glacier, north of Rapadalen. The woman found another group of hikers. A person from this second group ran nearly a mile to find help.
An elite alpine rescue team was sent in and is planning to winch a team member down into the 20-meter-deep crack from a hovering helicopter.
“We think the man is probably dead,” said Tom Bjalldal, police spokesman. “We have been down with the alpine group and searched the area, but no body was found. There is a glacial stream about one meter deep, and he was probably sucked under the glacier with the water.”
He said a helicopter would continue to search where the stream exits the ground.
A total of nine rescue workers and two helicopters worked on the mission.
“You really have to have the right equipment and the right education to be in the area,” said Bjalldal. “It can be very dangerous.”
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The 50-year-old Swedish man from Gothenburg was hiking with a woman when he tumbled into the fissure on the Skorki glacier, north of Rapadalen. The woman found another group of hikers. A person from this second group ran nearly a mile to find help.
An elite alpine rescue team was sent in and is planning to winch a team member down into the 20-meter-deep crack from a hovering helicopter.
“We think the man is probably dead,” said Tom Bjalldal, police spokesman. “We have been down with the alpine group and searched the area, but no body was found. There is a glacial stream about one meter deep, and he was probably sucked under the glacier with the water.”
He said a helicopter would continue to search where the stream exits the ground.
A total of nine rescue workers and two helicopters worked on the mission.
“You really have to have the right equipment and the right education to be in the area,” said Bjalldal. “It can be very dangerous.”
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