11:27 am CST Nov 12, 2009
(MountEverest.net) Here goes an update from Menno Boermans, with a call for help from Air Zermatt:
"A rescue team of Swiss Mountain Rescue Station Air Zermatt is on its way to Nepal to try to help Slovenian mountaineer Tomaz Humar. Humar is injured and stranded at about 6,300 meters on Langtang Lirung’s north face since earlier this week."
"On Monday November 9, Tomaz phoned with his partner in Slovenia. He said that he is injured, but without details. This was his first and last call from the mountain. He is thought to be on an altitude of around 6300 m, in south face of Langtang Lirung 7227m, a peak in the Langtang mountain chain, of the Nepalese Himalaya. His colleague in Slovenia called Air Zermatt, and asked for an intervention of the highly skilled mountain rescuers."
"The Swiss team includes Robert Andenmatten (rescue pilot Air Zermatt), Bruno Jelk (chief of the Zermatt mountain rescue station) and Simon Anthamatten (world famous alpinist and mountain rescue specialist)."
"Air Zermatts chief pilot Gerold Biner is coordinating the rescue in Zermatt: 'Our team left Switzerland this morning and is hoping to arrive in Kathmandu tomorrow. Our biggest challenge will be to arrange the permit for our pilot to fly a Nepalese helicopter. Sadly it seems difficult to convince the local authorities that our pilots are very experienced ‘longline-pilots’ (we fly up to 8000 sling load operations a year - cargo and human up to a length of 600 ft. lines). We have the skills and the currency to perform such extreme rescue missions in high altitude. So please if anyone can help us to convince the Nepalese authorities, contact us. Please let us try to save Tomaz'."
For further details please contact Menno Boermans of Air Zermatt (links section).
Alpine Rescue Center
By Air Zermatt
(Ed note: Details have been sketchy in this situation, due to friends' and related media's wish to honor Humar's request for no public coverage of his climb. One of the confusions therefore seems to involve on which side of the peak the injured climber is located. ExplorersWeb will update with more information as it becomes available.)
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