Telegraph e-paper

Mountaineer in just tracksuit saved ‘minutes from death’

By Nick Squires in Rome

A BRITISH man has been sent to hospital suffering from severe hypothermia after trying to climb Mont Blanc wearing nothing more than a tracksuit.

Italian mountain rescue officials said it was a miracle that Feda Hussein had survived after spending a night out on the Bionnassay glacier as he tried to scale Western Europe’s highest peak without the right clothing or equipment.

They initially thought he might be a migrant or refugee trying to cross into France on a perilous route that has been taken by many asylum seekers in recent years.

But Mr Hussein told Italian authorities that he was on holiday and that he had wanted to climb Mont Blanc to celebrate his birthday.

They criticised him for setting out on the climb without crampons, an ice axe and the other specialist equipment that is needed to climb at high altitude in the Alps.

Mr Hussein, 26, a graduate aerospace engineer from Portsmouth, made a call for help on Saturday night but an alpine rescue helicopter was unable to reach him because of the stormy weather.

He was eventually rescued on Sunday at dawn – experts said he was about five minutes from death.

His body temperature had dropped to 25 C, which is more than 10C lower than normal.

World News

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2022-10-05T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-10-05T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://dailytelegraph.pressreader.com/article/282029036118387

Daily Telegraph