Thick fog and the risk of avalanche have temporarily shut down the search for Tomaz Humar, the Slovenian solo climber injured and missing on Langtang Lirung in northern Nepal (read the November 12, 2009 NewsWire for more information).
Climbing and helicopter search teams are expected to mobilize again tomorrow. The Swiss rescue team Air Zermatt will fly two helicopters to base camp on Saturday to support rescue operations.
“The plan is to fly a mountain rescuer with a 50-meter longline to the location on the mountain where Tomaz Humar is supposed to be,” Alpinist correspondent and Air Zermatt team member Menno Boermans wrote in an email.
An aerial search on Tuesday and ground searches by four Nepalese climbing sherpas on Wednesday and Thursday were unsuccessful, however, and reports of Humar’s last communication suggest his condition is dire.
Dawa Sherpa of Asian Trekking told ExplorersWeb details of Humar’s communications in an email: “On the evening of November 9th, Asian Trekking received an emergency call from BC crew member Jagat: Tomaz had had an accident at approximately 6,300m and requested immediate rescue… [Tuesday] at 10:00am was also the last time Tomaz called Jagat. The conversation was very short. Tomaz seemed to be in a very critical condition and his voice was very weak. He said: ‘Jagat, this is my last!’ There was no further contact with Tomaz after that.”
Alpinist will post more rescue information in NewsWire as it becomes available.