Brit rescued from Mont Blanc in tracksuit insists he was 'prepared'

British climber rescued while trying to climb Mont Blanc in a tracksuit insists he was ‘well prepared’ but admits ‘maybe it wasn’t a good idea’ after trek nearly killed him

  • Feda Hussein, 26, from Portsmouth, was found wearing a tracksuit and a sheet
  • Miraculously survived freezing night, snowstorms and sub-zero temperatures 
  • His body temperature was just 25 degrees C – hypothermia typically sets in at 35
  • He has since spoken to MailOnline about his ordeal, admitting he could have been better prepared – after rescuers said he was wearing a tracksuit

A British climber rescued after trying to climb Mt Blanc in a tracksuit on his birthday has insisted to MailOnline he was ‘well prepared’ but admitted ‘maybe it wasn’t a good idea’ – as he revealed he thought he had ‘died’ on the peak.

Aerospace engineer Feda Hussein, 26, was discovered at 10,170ft by alpine rescue teams with his body temperature at 25c – the normal reading is 37c.

He had spent the night in freezing temperatures on the Italian side of the peak which straddles the French border and is the highest in Western Europe.

Officials have revealed he was wearing a tracksuit, hiking boots and his tent was a simple tarpaulin which had become useless in the bone numbing stormy conditions – with him just ‘five minutes’ from dying.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline from his hospital bed in Aosta, Feda denied he had been under prepared and said: ‘I got lost and the weather turned which made things worse for me.

Aerospace engineer Feda Hussein, 26, was discovered at 3,100m (10,170ft) by alpine rescue teams with his body temperature at 25c – the normal reading is 37c. Pictured: A worker from Aosta Valley Mountain Rescue attends to Hussein who was unconscious and on death’s door

Feda Hussein (pictured), 26, was found by Italy’s Aosta Valley Mountain Rescue on Sunday morning on the Bionnassay glacier after calling for help the previous evening. He has insisted to MailOnline he was ‘well prepared’ but admitted ‘maybe it wasn’t a good idea’

‘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.

‘I will admit it was pretty scary up there – at one point I thought I had died. I remember I called the rescue teams around 5pm to say I was in trouble and they said I had to stay put as the weather was too bad for them to pick me up.

‘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 is waking up in hospital.

‘They told me my body temperature had dropped to 25c and that I was five minutes from dying when they found me. 

‘I couldn’t feel my fingers and hypothermia had set in when I was up there but somehow I managed to survive and I know I have been very lucky.’

Feda, from Portsmouth, Hampshire, described how he had set off last weekend to climb Mt Blanc as part of his 26th birthday on Saturday but had been caught out as he made his way across the Bionnassay glacier – with the route described as a ‘splendid and serious snow and ice climb’.

He said: ‘I wanted to give myself a birthday present and I thought climbing to Mt Blanc was perfect – and I almost made it to the summit – I could see it in front of me but I was caught out by the weather, although maybe with hindsight I should have prepared things better.’

When asked what mountaineering experience he had, Feda told MailOnline: ‘I’ve climbed Snowdon a few times and I’ve done a bit of indoor climbing but this was the first time I have done something like this on my own – maybe it wasn’t such a good idea.’

The route Feda was attempting – from Italy into France – is only recommended between June and August as the weather is good and mountain huts en-route are open.

He added: ‘I’m just glad the rescuers found me when they did and I’m grateful to them – I really thought I was going to die as my body felt really weird but they brought me back from the brink. I was definitely on my way out when they found me.’

The woefully underprepared climber is seen lying unconscious on the bottom left side of this image of the Bionnassay glacier

The British man was found more than 10,000ft up on a glacier as he tried to reach the summit of Mont Blanc

Doctors have been amazed at how he managed to survive as when the body cools to 25c death is virtually guaranteed as the heart begins to slow down and respiratory arrest follows shortly afterwards. 

Mountain rescue officials told MailOnline that Hussein was ‘dressed as if out for a Sunday stroll’ with no warm gear or weatherproof tent despite bone numbing temperatures and high winds. 

Rescuers were blown away when they discovered Hussein had attempted the huge climb without so much as proper mountaineering clothing, much less ice picks, crampons and other essential bits of climbing kit.

They suspected he was a desperate migrant who had opted to take a mountain route to bypass border controls, and were amazed to find that he was in fact a woefully underprepared British hiker. 

A mountain rescue official said: ‘His body temperature when he was found was 25c and the normal is 37c, he was about five minutes from dying and was lucky to have been found.

‘He was suffering from severe hypothermia and flown immediately to hospital where the doctors started working on getting his body temperature back to normal.

‘The man said he was trying to climb to Mt Blanc but the forecast was bad and he wasn’t dressed at all correctly for such an expedition – we advise against climbing at this time of year because of the weather.

After spending Friday night in a tent on the nearby Miage glacier, Hussein (pictured) continued his journey on Saturday but became lost when the wind whipped up a snowstorm 

‘When he called to say he was lost he said he would be OK as he had a weatherproof tent but it was more of a tarpaulin and all he had was hiking sticks.

‘Climbing to an altitude of 4,800m is serious business and it should only be attempted by experienced climbers who are well prepared and well equipped.

‘Because of the weather conditions we couldn’t send out a team until the following morning so we had to tell him to stay put and try and find some shelter.

‘At one point we couldn’t raise him on the telephone and there was a real fear he had died but he was fortunate that we found him, five more minutes and he would have been dead.’

He added: ‘It is costly to send a crew up to rescue someone from the mountain in a helicopter, especially someone who has attempted a climb ill equipped and we are considering sending him a 1,500 Euro bill for the rescue.’

In August a furious mayor on the French side of the Alpine range introduced a policy requiring ‘pseudo-mountaineers’ to front up a £13,000 deposit to cover their funeral and rescue costs before being allowed to climb. 

Jean-Marc Peillex, the mayor of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, from where climbers can make it to the top along the Goûter Route, introduced the measure after dozens of people continued to defy warnings.

Rescuers were blown away when they discovered Hussein had attempted the huge climb without so much as proper mountaineering clothing, much less ice picks, crampons and other essential bits of climbing kit (stock picture shows mountaineer on Bionnassay glacier with extensive equipment) 

A French mayor in August introduced a policy whereby inexperienced climbers are forced to pay a near £13,000 deposit to cover rescue and funeral costs if they want to climb

The considerable deposit is split up in two sections – €10,000 covers the cost of a mountain rescue and €5,000 covers the cost of a funeral.

The route is accessible to anyone of any skill level and officials have said the number of inexperienced climbers in increasing.

In a statement posted on Twitter, Peillex said the idea for the deposit came after five Romanian visitors attempted the ascent ‘wearing shorts, trainers and straw hats’ and had to be turned back by mountain police. 

‘Sometimes silly people only respond to silly ideas,’ the mayor told The Telegraph.

‘They have the same approach of someone who wants to commit suicide. So I say, let’s do things properly and ask them to pay us the costs that this will entail.

‘People want to climb with death in their backpacks,’ he added. 

‘So let’s anticipate the cost of having to rescue them, and for their burial, because it’s unacceptable that French taxpayers should foot the bill.’

However, the mayor of Courmayeur which sits at the foot of Mont Blanc on the Italian side of the border, called the decision ‘surreal’ and stated the Italian side ‘will not limit the ascent of hikers.’

‘The mountain is not a property,’ Roberto Rota said.

‘As administrators, we limit ourselves to indicating when the paths are not in the best condition, but asking for a deposit to climb to the top is really surreal. You can decide to close a path or a passage if there is an actual risk,’ the mayor told Corriere.

According the latest figures available around 25,000 people a year reach the summit of Mt Blanc and five years ago France introduced legislation clamping down on climbers who set off poorly equipped and who had to be rescued.  

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