Three experienced climbers thought they would be blown off Canada’s highest mountain when a blizzard whipped up 160km/h winds on June 2. Mount Logan is 5,959 metres high and is located in Kluane National Park in the northern territory of Yukon. Extreme altitude sickness often occurs at 5,500 metres.
Climber Bryce Brown says the group started to ascend the peak in good weather, but that changed for the worse and he knew they were in trouble when he could not see past his hand.
‘Crawling…to make progress’
“We were actually crawling at one point, just trying to make forward progress,” says Brown, who is spending this week recovering. At just 200 metres below the summit, the three managed to find their way to a crevasse and dug a shelter into it. They then spent three days cocooned under two meters of snow.
Frostbite and altitude sickness
When the weather cleared the tunnelled out of the snow cave and began a slow descent, progressing only a few hundred metres. By June 9, they were still at 5,300 metres and were again ravaged by stormy weather. By then one of the climbers had frostbite and all were showing signs of altitude sickness. Food and fuel began to run out so they used a satellite phone to call for help.
Two days later, a helicopter was dispatched by Kluane National Park. It collected them and flew them to safety.
Photos:
Parks Canada released a video taken from the rescue helicopter.
Everyone is safe and sound: See video from last night’s rescue of climbers from Mt. Logan in Kluane National Park and Reserve. Parks Canada is proud of its visitor safety team who are as always a very impressive and professional group.
Posted by Parks Canada Yukon on Friday, June 12, 2015
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