British man was 'minutes away from dying' when he was rescued trying to climb Mont Blanc in a tracksuit on his birthday
5 October 2022, 15:49
A British man was minutes away from dying when he was rescued after trying to climb Mont Blanc in a tracksuit on his birthday.
Aerospace engineer Feda Hussein was found by Italy’s Aosta Valley Mountain Rescue team on Sunday morning after attempting to climb Europe’s highest mountain without any proper equipment to celebrate turning 26-years-old.
He’s scaled the likes of Snowdon ‘a couple of times’ and dabbles in indoor climbing but has never done anything like this before on his own.
In an interview from his hospital bed with the MailOnline he insisted he was well prepared but admitted ‘maybe it wasn’t a good idea’.
READ MORE: Boy, 11, fighting for life in hospital after being hit by double-decker bus on way to school
READ MORE: Inside the Russian torture chambers with buckets full of pulled out teeth yanked out of victims
The search team was unable to find him on Saturday night because the weather was so bad, telling him on the phone to ‘stay put’ until the morning.
He said: “We stayed in touch for a few hours and then I remember calling and saying ‘don’t worry, I’m going to die in a minute’ and then I blacked out. The next thing I remember was waking up in hospital.”
The rescuers revealed they found him at 10,170ft by the alpine in only hiking boots and a tracksuit while being draped in a sheet inside a tent which only had basic tarpaulin.
At the time his body temperature was at 25C – the normal reading is 37C. They said he was just five minutes away from dying.
He told the MailOnline: “I did have the right gear, I had crampons, a harness and rope with me, it's just when they found me all my gear was covered with snow. It's all still up there, I'd taken my crampons off so I could get in my sleeping bag.”
The route is recommended between June and August when the weather is good and the mountain huts are open along the route.
