POKHARA, April 26: Wui Kin Chin, a Malaysian climber, who was stuck on Mt Annapurna 1 for the last three days, has finally been rescued on Thursday.
Chin, who successfully climbed Mt Everest last year, was stuck at an altitude of 7,500 meters. He got stuck on the mountain while descending after a successful climb to the Annapurna-1 summit.
Chin reached the top of the 8,100-meter (26,500-foot) mountain on Tuesday but failed to return to the nearest camp, one kilometre below the peak, with the rest of his group.
He has been brought to 6,500 meters, according to Thaneshwar Guragain, manager of the expedition organizer Seven Summits Trek Pvt Ltd.
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“A rescue team was dropped at 6,500 m and took nearly 90 minutes to reach Camp 4 as wind is picking up. Chin Wui was spotted around 7,500 meters,” Nirmal Purja, one of the climbers involved in the rescue mission, wrote on Twitter.
A team including Chin had successfully scaled the 8,100 meter Annapurna, the 10th highest in the world, on Tuesday afternoon.
Chin and his guide Nima Tshering Sherpa got left behind while descending even as fellow climbers and Sherpas got back to Camp IV. As Chin was not able to walk for long, Nima also descended to Camp IV as he was running out of oxygen. He informed other Sherpas that Chin had been stuck but they could not conduct a rescue immediately.
The insurance firm was asked to arrange a rescue helicopter but the firm kept delaying over a go-ahead for the rescue operation. It was undecided about arranging a helicopter as agreed in the insurance policy. Worried over Chin’s situation, fellow climbers informed his wife in Malaysia on Wednesday.
She appealed to the insurance firm, Global Insurance International, for a rescue, but it didn’t respond promptly. Later, she approached the Nepali helicopter company Simrik.
When rescuers conducted aerial patrolling, the climber was seen waving his hand at an altitude of 7,500 meters.
“I saw him waving at us from about 50-60 meters away,” said helicopter pilot Siddhartha Gurung.
After attempts to airlift the ailing climber went in vain, four high-altitude mountaineers with the required rescue tools and equipment were taken to an altitude of 6,500 meters.
“It is the insurance company’s responsibility to rescue climbers in case of an emergency. We stepped up our efforts after the insurance company refused to play its role ,” said Guragain, manager of Seven Summit Treks.
