Source: A paraglider dies in Castejón de Sos and two mountaineers…
Found on: 2022-09-22 19:44:04
A 53-year-old British citizen lost his life this Thursday in a paragliding accident that occurred on the south face of the Gallinero de Cerler peak, the same place where another athlete died last June doing the same activity. In the last few hours there has been another serious mountain accident that has affected two climbers from Huesca aged 56 and 58. While climbing Tozal del Mallo, in Ordesa, there was a rockfall and they fell unconscious, hanging from the ropes, almost 350 meters high.
The fatal accident of the paraglider occurred around 1:30 p.m. Witnesses to the event have notified 112 saying that he remained conscious after the event, but his breathing was abnormal. The Huesca Civil Guard helicopter, the Greim de Benasque and a 061 toilet have gone there.
When they arrived there were two people performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation maneuvers on the victim. The mountain team has relieved them while the paraglider made the assessment and gave him medication, but due to the seriousness of the injuries he presented, the paraglider has finally died.
The body has been transferred to the Benasque helipad and from there the funeral services have taken it to the deposit of the Provincial Hospital of Huesca. The Civil Guard is investigating the facts to clarify the circumstances of the accident.
This is the second fatal paragliding accident recorded this year in the Pyrenees and it so happens that both have occurred in the same place. Last June, another practitioner of this discipline, a 52-year-old from Barcelona, he also lost his life on Gallinero peak, in Cerler (Benasque). He was in a group of four other athletes, his sail collapsed and he hit the hillside. With the latest victim, there are already 14 deaths on the mountain this year.
A day earlier, on Wednesday, two climbers suffered serious injuries as a result of a rockfall on the Tozal del Mallo de Ordesa peak, in the municipality of Torla. The accident occurred around 5:00 p.m. and it was a mountaineer who reported to 112 that the climbers had been left hanging from their ropes.
From the Huesca Civil Guard headquarters, the Boltaña Greim was informed of what had happened and the Logroño Air Unit was notified (the Huesca helicopter was under review), the mountain rescue specialists and the 061 doctor. In addition, a second team was activated. The event occurred at the top of one of the walls of the peak.
The mountaineer who had warned of what had happened and the victims were located on a small ledge, in a lower area. The guards they descended to them by rappelling, taking maximum security measures to not cause a new stone fall. Then the second team arrived, also from Greim de Boltaña, and the doctor. Given the complexity of the terrain and its difficulties, it was anticipated that the rescue would last overnight, so the helicopter returned to its base in Logroño.
Between both teams and with the help of doctor 061, it was decided to use the rappelling rope as towing rope to start lifting one of the wounded, that after a first assistance was considered to be very serious. Subsequently, the elevation of the second began. The ascent to the top of the peak was very laborious.
Once in it and being already at night the climbers were stabilized. However, given the seriousness of one of them and the impossibility of flying the Civil Guard helicopter due to lack of sunlight, the collaboration of the French National Gendarmeriewhich has a helicopter to perform night flight. There was a risk that the most seriously injured person would lose his life if he did not receive medical assistance. For this reason, around midnight, the French aircraft evacuated the wounded to the Pau Hospital (France).
Members of Peña Guara
The two climbers are members of the Peña Guara club. Sources of this entity indicated that they are “magnificent” climbers. One of them, the least serious, was transferred from Pau to the San Jorge University Hospital, where he was treated. He is already recovering at his home. His partner, with more serious injuries, especially to the head, He is still in France, where he underwent emergency surgery.