Two young Czechs, Clara Filipova /aged 23/ and Jakub Kerouac /aged 25/ from Brno, have been successfully evacuated from Maglic Mount this morning, where they experienced a real drama, and are now recovering at Tjentiste, in the house of the chief of the Mountain Rescue Service of Republika Srpska, Nenad Ikonic.
In extremely difficult weather conditions, with heavy fog, cold weather and steep terrain, the operation of finding and evacuating Czech tourists, which included eight members of the Mountain Rescue Service from Foca, lasted for 12 hours.
Rescuers received a SOS call at 19:00 hours, and the Czech tourists were found at approximately 23:00 hours, on a peak of Maglic Mt., at about 2,300 meters above sea level. With a swollen knee and damaged ligaments, the girl could not walk, so the transport to Prijevor, where a vehicle was waiting for them, lasted until five o’clock in the morning. They arrived at Tjentiste at approximately seven o’clock.
The Czechs headed to the highest mountain peak in BiH yesterday afternoon, and they made a mistake when they turned right from the main track at less than 100 meters from the peak, entering into one crease between the rocks.
They went down to an inconvenient spot, got stuck and could not go up or down, they got scared,” explains Chief Ikonic.
He points out that, regardless of how rescuers are ready for and accustomed to such situations, the rescue operation was very exhausting.
“We literally feel wrecked, we hardly can stand, the mountain has pulled the last atom of stamina out of us. Everything was against us, the fog and rain, cold weather, the temperature of only four and a half degrees. The fog was so thick that one could not see own hand if one stretches it,” says Ikonic.
He says that descending down the mountain was very demanding.
“When we found them, the girl cried; we immediately gave her the first aid, bandaged her knee and gave her pain killers. We had to carry her, literally inch by inch down the slope. And the boy was scared too, he had his knees scratched,” says Ikonic.
Ikonic states that the Czechs told them that the weather was nice when they headed towards the mountains, thus they could not imagine that something like this could happen to them; they were thanking them with tears, aware of the fact that their lives were saved thanks to the rapid response of the Mountain Rescue Service of Republika Srpska.
Upon arrival at Tjentiste, two young Czech tourists were examined by the doctors and Foca rescuers give them a warm bed.
source: SRNA
