A 27-year-old Lombard flew 180 meters from Torre Venezia from where he was descending with a friend. Recovery operations are difficult due to bad weather
This morning, Saturday 28 August, the lifeless body of a young Lombard mountaineer who had fallen on Friday 27 August while preparing to abseil from Torre Venezia, in Civetta, was recovered after having climbed Via Ratti. I also rescued my friend who was alone on top all night. Friday around 10 pm, the Centrale del Suem was alerted by a climber, who had seen his friend fall from the circular ledge at the top of the Venice Tower, before starting the abseils.
From the first information, after leaving Via Ratti at around 9.30 pm, on the circular ledge the two climbers moved to the small 5-6 meter gully that leads to the start of the abseils. At the beginning of this groove there was a nail with a lanyard, used by some skilfuls to descend to the attack of the abseils, which came out of the crack, as soon as the boy loaded the weight after having hooked, causing it to fall into the void.
Alerted the Agordo Alpine Rescue, a team reached the Vazzoler Refuge by jeep in order to be transported to high altitude by one of the helicopters enabled for night flight and to recover the boy, 23 years old from Milan, stuck at 2,450 meters above sea level. To keep him company, update him on what was being done, to cheer him up, a rescuer constantly contacted him on his cell phone every 15/20 minutes. Having agreed in the first instance to send the Trentino helicopter rescue, there was no longer the possibility of his intervention because he was engaged in other missions.
Around 11 pm the helicopter ambulance of the Aiut Alpin Dolomites of Bolzano arrived and immediately carried out a reconnaissance, noting that the fog had stopped 20 meters below the point where the mountaineer was. Once off the pitch, with the worsening of the weather the helicopter moved to Agordo, where it waited for a possible improvement until two o’clock, when, continuing the negative conditions, the crew returned. At 3 there was an improvement, even in this juncture, however, the Trento air ambulance – scheduled for a small goal in half ‘ now – did not leave due to sudden weather changes.
At the first light of dawn today, the helicopter of the Air Service Center, which has an agreement with the Alpine Rescue Dolomiti Bellunesi, landed at the disposal of the teams and waited for a passage to open in the persistent clouds to take off. At 6.25 am two rescuers were embarked and the helicopter climbed to the height of the circular ledge, where one of them got off and went to meet the boy, who was also very well shaken. Loaded on board, the 23-year-old was taken to the base camp at Piani di Pelsa and from there accompanied to the Vazzoler Refuge to be warmed up and refreshed.
The helicopter then flew again towards the face to look for the fallen boy, Guido di Carpegna Brivio, 27, from Cesano Maderno (MB). The clouds went down again, A new rotation was necessary to locate the lifeless body, which ended 180 meters lower in a gully under the arrival of the abseils. When 7 rescuers landed, the anchors were equipped for lowering, reassembling and embarking the body.
The recovery then took place with the Suem di Pieve di Cadore helicopter, which also took rescuers downstream.