Missing hiker found alive after 47 days in the Himalayas
A Taiwanese young man who was missing on a mountain in Nepal has been found and rescued after 47 days. Unfortunately, his girlfriend died three days before they were discovered, as the Independent reports.
Madhav Basnet, an official from Assian Trekking Agency said that Liang Sheng Yueh, 21, was found on Wednesday on a ledge under a waterfall and was transported to a hospital in Kathmandu via helicopter. The body of his girlfriend, 19-year-old Liu Chen Chun was also transported to the hospital.
The couple was on a long expedition on the Ganesh Himal trail, which is not a very popular route. They got caught in a snowstorm in March and got lost afterwards. Basnet says that the couple seemed to have followed a river in hope of finding a village but slipped and fell in a waterfall. They landed on the ledge and couldn’t climb up or down. The altitude of the area is 2,600 metres.
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A few days after, the weather improved, according to Basnet, but the temperature was unclear. The two had no guides and were carrying their own food, tent and sleeping bags. They managed to survive on food they had in their backpacks for the first two weeks. After that, their diet was reduced to only salt and water.
Rescuers searched the area for two weeks trying to find the couple. When they didn’t succeed, they suspended their search. They resumed it on April 20, when they spotted a red tent and managed to climb down.
“We found the man alive and able to speak to us, but the woman was already dead. We could not carry them so we called a helicopter,” Mr Basnet said.
The man seemed to be in good health in the emergency room.
“He appears exhausted and lost some 30 kilograms of body weight,” Ajay Singh Thapa, a doctor at the Grande Hospital, said. “He was suffering from severe malnutrition. His foot was covered with maggots and hair full of lice. Despite having to live like that for 47 days, he appears to be mostly normal.”
Liang Sheng Yueh said he spent the past three days next to his dead girlfriend.
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