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Although they had climbing experience, the two of them made rookie mistakes that brought them to an end. They rushed into an extremely dangerous area, without signs, in bad weather with blizzards and fog, without correctly using the specific equipment for such ascent.
The woman was the first to fall into the abyss, and her partner apparently wanted to jump to her aid and also slipped. They had no chance of survival. They collapsed more than 700 meters into the abyss, in a rocky area covered in unstable layers of frozen snow.
FD (47 years old) and BC (52 years old), both from Bucharest, arrived in Busteni on Saturday 2 January. They parked their cars near the Gura Diham chalet and from here they made an extremely difficult route, even in summer and not recommended for tourists in winter. They ignored the weather forecast for blizzard and fog on the mountain and climbed Brâna Morarului, a mountainous route fringed by deep rocky chasms and known for the dozens of casualties it caused among experienced climbers and mountain rescuers.
The accident occurred shortly before the end of the route. The woman made the fatal mistake of removing her carabiner, most likely relaxing, and then it appears that she tripped over the rope. His climbing partner witnessed the accident, but did not intervene in time. He immediately called Salvamont and asked for emergency help.
“I was advised to stay put and wear survival kit until my colleagues caught up with it. From what I understand, another friend called and recommended the same thing, wait for rescue teams. We don’t know exactly what happened, but we suspect that he tried to bend down to give first aid and fell. There were technical errors, “explained Claudiu Vasilescu, a mountain rescuer from Busteni who participated in the recovery action for the two tourists.
The mountain rescuers specified that on Saturday the weather was not favorable, not even for a walk on a common route, but for a climb on that route. It had snowed, the snow was icy and unstable, and there was fog.
VIDEO SOURCE Salvamont Busteni
“The two of them went up an unmarked and very difficult route. They had gear with them, but we don’t know if they used it or how they used it. We didn’t find the rope, we don’t know if they were insured. They still had axes, corners, and good equipment, but we don’t know how and if they were used. They probably relaxed too soon. Illegal mistakes on the mountain, ”said one of the mountain rescuers.
The two tourists collapsed empty for hundreds of meters, on a rocky cliff, mostly covered by frozen snow. They had no chance of survival. The injuries sustained in the fall were fatal to both.
Rescuers intervened to recover the bodies in two stages, Saturday night and Sunday morning. The prosecutor’s office attached to the Sinaia Court opened a criminal case for manslaughter. It is just a formality, but one that must be followed in such situations.
The man killed in Bucegi was one of the best electronic engineers in Romania and was a researcher at the University of Tampere, Finland. His climbing partner was also from Ilfov County.
The Morarului Valley and the Cerbului Valley are the most dangerous areas in Bucegi and are “trampled” especially by experienced and well-equipped climbers. The unmarked routes are not recommended in winter, but that does not mean that experienced or inexperienced tourists avoid them. There have been dozens of fatal accidents here over the years, many of them caused by avalanches. In December 2018, two tourists were killed by avalanches in the Morar Valley, and in 2004, in the same area, the greatest tragedy occurred in Bucegi. Five professional climbers, including two mountain rescuers from Zărneşti and a soldier from the Predeal mountain hunting battalion, lost their lives in an avalanche. All were part of a group of athletes who participated in a ski mountaineering competition.
Despite the warnings of the mountain rescuers, tourists do not abandon the climbs on the ridge even in bad weather conditions. There are dozens of calls every day from stranded mountaineers trapped between rocks, many of them unsuitable for negative temperatures. The biggest mistake mountain trail enthusiasts make is using misinformation found on the internet, wrong maps, approaching unmarked trails, and ignoring advice from mountain rescuers.
We recommend that you read more:
The first day of skiing in Sinaia, the last day of peace for Salvamont. Skiers passed out, got injured on the slope, or got lost in the woods
The impressive testimony of a mountain lifeguard involved in the toughest rescue action of the last ten years: “There followed a long and exhausting wait”
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