Hoisted from Hell (Full Episode) | Extreme Rescues

[Applause] if they anchored themselves to the mountain it'll bring the whole helicopter down okay what's happened all was was bone where is your thumb now winter and benjamin was not there people died when they fall in a crevasse 9-1-1 what's the address of the emergency ice cliff glacier two climbers two injured to ascend or descend what is the nature of the injuries there's a broken leg and facial lacerations so the broken leg they're unable to walk yeah and is he awake yeah he is is there any bleeding he's still cognizant and aware so i don't think internal bleeding no we're on the ice cliff right above the glacier on the north side of mount stewart the call comes from high altitude more than eight thousand feet up the notorious icecliff glacier climbing route two climbers report falling one thousand feet to the foot of a steep gully in my experience i've never seen people fall a thousand feet down a near vertical slope and survive you knew they were going to be in a bad way you know even best case scenario they're going gonna be messed up but just how messed up a lot of calls like that when you hear that it's a body recovery it was last minute it wasn't standard loadout i just oh i don't have a knife and i took it off and put it on my harness had i not had that knife i hate to think of the what-ifs my concerns are slope and avalanche dangers i know right away this is going to be an extremely high risk mission rescue tech george alvarez switches on his helmet camera as they climbed over 8 500 feet and the very limits of their helicopters power the huey has a max operating ceiling of 9000 feet you can feel the the bird not responding as normal when you hear different sounds the shutters it's it's an unnerving you start scanning the snow fields and you're not sure exactly where to look on this almost vertical slope but it didn't take long to spot two little dots in the middle of the snow out in no man's land rescue tech george alvarez wears the only camera on the mission the most pressing danger that stood out was the slope you don't have a hold of your gear it's going to slide down the mountain if you lose a handhold you're going to slide down the mountain and that's just one of the deadly challenges the victims lie in an avalanche chute large snow deposits below them suggest serious avalanche activity i didn't know if the huey coming in there that close to the slope was going to initiate an avalanche [Music] it's a very loud helicopter and all that snow and ice is above him at any time it can just come crashing down when we hear voices starting to stress in the back and agitation it's because the tension is high is this even possible can we do this [Music] alvarez and his helmet cam are going solo 200 feet down to the slope [Music] assessing the snowfield that they were on and there's cracks in it above and below them all that hanging ice let's go it could go from bad to really bad i mean catastrophic the casualties are surrounded by danger a rescue tech normally detaches from the winch as soon as they touch down but this time chief pilot potter insists that george stay attached to the helicopter for the entire rescue if the mountain starts coming down on us they're just going to rip me off the side and try to get me out of the avalanche and i told him i'm going to grab the first guy i can [Music] but his descent starts to go wrong george alvarez's spin develops into a potentially deadly spiral and that just got worse and worse it's just a blur it's like being on a merry-go-round but that's traveling at 50 miles an hour it's ice it's it's concrete in some spots depending on how hard i hit the ground if i enter myself the mission's over those two are going to be staying where they are it was like hitting some men i don't remember how long i stayed there uh just collecting myself letting everything stop spinning he lands below the victims in case his touchdown triggers an avalanche once i could tell which way was up or i started scrambling hands and knees normally the helicopter flies away until the rescue tech can assess the situation not today further increasing the risk of avalanche as george approaches the men he sees a trail of blood in the snow [Music] is there any deformity [Music] okay i might have to discharge you up you're good with that in his fall eddie mcfarland's leg twisted so badly that his femur snapped in three places getting eddie with his broken leg into a harness is going to take time so george decides to hoist his partner eric out first i'm seeing all this damage to his face damage to his helmet he hit really really hard to have this so i'm thinking skull fracture i'm thinking neck spinal injuries i'd remember like a pretty heavy impact on my helmet and i'm pretty sure that's when i got knocked unconscious hit me like right on the back of my head and my face was so swollen you know my eyes were like pretty closed and i was like it's not good even if i had the opportunity to um put him on a backboard the slope was so severe it wouldn't have been feasible and again every second counted the quicker we could get out of there without starting an avalanche the better hey i'll be right back the danger of having loose debris space blankets coats sleeping bags if that gets sucked into a rotor they'll bring the whole bird down alvarez takes eric away from the debris to lessen the chance of it getting sucked up by the rotor wash [Music] [Music] took off spinning around like a top on a cable winch hanging below the helicopter with the rotor wash and with all the like noise that is an insane situation [Music] [Music] and i remembered a sense of what if they decide they can't get eddie what if something happens and they have to fly away without him hey his legs are really bad and that was like a pretty unbearable thought i was just petrified [Music] in the cascade mountains of washington state a rescue team plucks injured climber eric strickler from the side of mount stewart eric fell nearly 1 000 feet smashing his face and helmet and sustaining neck and back injuries [Music] now they must work fast to save his climbing partner eddie mcfarland the steep avalanche chute with a broken leg every second counted the quicker we could get out of there without starting an avalanche the better i told the guys hey i'm gonna grab them and and let's go all right it's the same deal because it's the terrain i can't split it here so hold onto it i'm going to try to be as careful as possible but it might hurt in the suit there's no stabilization for his leg said you have no idea of how much you know this is gonna hurt here you're gonna have to lift your butt up a little okay all right now all right and then i see several sections of rope that are now attached to eddy so i automatically think that they anchored themselves to the mountain this is the absolute worst case scenario he fears the helicopter is tied to the mountain if the helicopter starts getting forward momentum and we're hardpointed in it'll bring the whole helicopter down i have to get that rope cut otherwise everybody might die as soon as that last rope went through and cut it it was just just a huge huge relief [Music] [Music] [Music] that was definitely the most painful thing i've experienced but i was ecstatic getting rescued you know we're actually going to survive this since this incident our standard kit now is a large fixed blade knife for row cutting for survival for you name it so i want contribution to the unit and all the rescues i've flown in the last 15 years it's the highest waste i've done and it's probably the nastiest slope i've done it was definitely up there as my top one [Music] i think they're some of the most admirable people that have ever come into my life just incredibly incredibly humbling it just makes me very grateful to be alive still is it's the first time we climb stroller and we enjoy to to go to the top because it is very beautiful place roland spielhorn his son benjamin wife isabelle and their friend francis reached the summit of the mighty stalhorn peak which rises over 13 hundred feet in the swiss alps we're happy because we've done it so we we we do that each time yeah the four adventurers now face the dangerous ski down through hazardous backcountry today three of the four film their journey [Music] we want to keep an eye on the person who is going first in fact he looks this on live study [Music] a one by one we decent [Music] the group agrees on a course and sets off benjamin going last [Music] as the ground opens up beneath benjamin clings to the side of a crevasse a deep crack in a glacier and things are about to get even worse [Music] let's go high in the swiss alps a crevasse opens with skier benjamin spillhorn and he clings to the sides for dear life [Music] he's fallen 30 feet but inches from his head the crevasse plunges down so far he can't see the bottom further down the steep ski slope his parents have no idea what's happened we go down about 200 meters and we returned and beijing was not there [Music] where is benjamin [Music] maybe he has fallen down uh so wait it's a really bad feeling we don't want to believe it's an accident [Music] benjamin can't risk climbing out for fear he'll slip even further into the abyss or trigger the sides to collapse in on him down the slope his parents are getting frantic we were just asking each person we saw at the end of the slope have you seen somebody have you seen bajamar and people say no no there is only one possible conclusion their son has fallen into a crevasse [Music] a lot of people died and they fall in a crevasse it is alive dead benjamin's now been lying for 15 minutes on a snow bridge across the middle of the crevasse usually they'd collapse under the weight of an adult but this one may have saved his life he breaks out his pack of climbing tools securing himself to the crevasse wall with an ice screw in case the snow bridge collapses but he still has no way of getting out francis isabel begin to climb to bajamar to go to him we need around 20 minutes [Music] i have to go there faster [Music] when i was climbing i was just thinking climb climb and that's all after 17 minutes in the crevasse benjamin hears a voice but not one he recognizes [Music] a passing mountain guide stumbles across the crevasse [Music] when i arrive at the at the top i saw the mountain guide and it was on on the snow on the edge of the crevasse if the mouth of the crevasse gives way the snow could collapse on benjamin foreign foreign i remember just waiting waiting waiting he has to climb to get out this hall but at this moment for me it was death danger high in the swiss alps skier benjamin spillhorn faces a grueling 30-foot rope climb out of a crevasse if he slips and the ice crew supporting his rope breaks free he could fall to his death okay benjamin's rescuers can't risk pulling them up in case they collapse the mouth of the crevasse he must make his own way out with every swing of the ice axe benjamin risks collapsing the walls of the crevasse one in 11 people who fall into a crevasse die from snow burial [Applause] foreign is foreign [Music] did you see it i'm touching [Music] [Music] [Music] let me see here i saw benjamin coming out of the grass that was i remember this mom the moment it was like your it's a good it was good to see him oh yeah just i was very afraid i was very [Music] i said all is okay and he said yes oh he's okay and he go in the helicopter i can't speak to him i can't take in my arm and kiss him when i fell i was sure that i was killing myself i did not expect to land on snow actually [Music] and sometimes you the difference between to live or to die is really pretty small two weeks later benjamin returns to the alps and resume skiing in the stunning glacial backcountry [Music] for you [Music] someone's had a serious hand injury that needs to be retrieved the saint john northland helicopter rescue team gets the emergency call from a fishing vessel still out at sea what worries them is how little they know it's pretty limited information a cray fisherman and something about his hand getting caught on the winch and we didn't know whether it would just involve fingers or whether he's ripped his hand off the priority is to get this patient to a specialist surgeon is there a major bleed that can't be controlled and if a bleed can't be controlled that person can can die from it the crew face a series of daunting challenges just to reach the boat from their base and fungi it's the 300 mile round trip to three kings island well out of their helicopter's fuel range there are no refueling stops for us up that far the only option was to carry our own extra fuel we were going to have to refuel somewhere along the way but it adds extra time time we didn't have the rescuers need to winch the injured fisherman off the boat and get him to a hospital as soon as possible there's a couple of elements that are playing against this one is that it'll be night so the pilots will need to find some reference hopefully with the island it's also predicted that the seas might be quite large and a quite gusty wind there was a storm coming in from the west arriving about the same time as we were going to be there we're going to be winching in the dark and that really puts the pressure on in such stormy conditions the winch line has to be secured to the boat before they can risk sending sam down this means the helicopter will be attached to the fishing vessel for the entire winch one of the riskiest maneuvers in air rescue if you get the winch cable tan ground on the boat that can pull the aircraft into the seat if there's a emergency where we need to cut the cable um i can either activate the cable cutter on the back yeah or i will call the top it's hot as we headed north it got darker and darker being that it's at night in stormy conditions and involving a boat they all come together for the perfect storm off the north coast of new zealand a helicopter rescue team combs the black seas for a boat they've received reports that a wounded fisherman may be bleeding out on the vessel which is close to the uninhabited three kings island you know the highest point on this uh this island three or four hundred feet okay i'm just starting to see it now and the light is shining up behind it it's coming into view on the right we descended out of cloud and picked up the island the wind was getting strong and it had the potential to make it rough and quite a difficult lynch coming down real slow towards the boat we saw the light of the boat and that was the first light we'd seen probably for the last 20 or 30 minutes it was in such a remote area mark has to get rescue tech sam onto the boat to extract the injured fisherman they have agreed a plan to lower a winch line onto the deck which a member of the boat crew will tie to the vessel but if the boat pulls on the hoist line it can drag the chopper into the sea a really really dark night really windy situation a boat that's moving up and down and sideways and the aircraft that's getting buffeted from all different directions it was right up there sort of knocking on 10 out of 10. the winch line has been secured to the boat mark must now control the slack of the line to get rescue tech sand down safely it gets the pulse racing adrenaline's rushing through your veins this is a the most delicate part of the operation you're wondering is sam going to land up in the water are they going to hit the side of the vessel hi everybody sam's my name what was your name terry what's happened terry um i'd love to come off come on and where is your thumb now everything's still in the club okay i think we just put you in here i can jump to the helicopter and then get you away once you're in the helicopter we can have a look at it give you something for pain okay you'll need to take your hat off can we get a life jacket that initial five to ten minutes of that real hardcore pain you had to soak up that had gone and uh there was more adrenaline pumping you know hey terry how are you feeling anyway oh good excellent and you've got a nice strong pulse here which sounds good too eh and your color's good i was asking them questions like hey man was he no yeah blood gets oh because it's been ripped off not cut off you know a clean cut all it was was um bone bone and gristle let's get that off quickly sam knows they've got to move fast his pilot is struggling to maintain a hover in the driving winds and rain weather was deteriorating we were in quite heavy rain keeping orientated is the most difficult thing you can imagine you don't know where uppers and down is it's a very delicate situation and you're relying on all your senses the helicopter is running low on fuel [Music] they can't afford to make a single mistake getting that tension on the cable is really tricky if the cable is too tight would risk pulling them into the water if it's too loose then that could tangle around anything on the boat and could could pull the aircraft into the sea there's a lot of pressure to get it right there our lives at risk in high winds off the coast of new zealand a helicopter rescue team is about to winch a seriously injured fisherman and one of their own rescue crew from a storm-lashed boat you know i looked at him he banged his light and we just went and i was like whoa yeah that freaked me out [Music] yep the eclipse there peter to the left [Applause] feels that his thumb's been pulled off needs to be there within six hours for a surgeon to to have any chance of putting that back on the clock's ticking it's already been three hours since the accident the pilot has to refuel before they can get terry to surgery if the worsening storm grounds them there'll be no hope of saving his thumb exactly [Applause] um [Music] [Applause] turned around and looked at it craig skipper and i went my thumb's gone broke craig says oh you you your fishing crew's over you know i'm lying on my back in the wheelhouse you know um sucking up at the and when he said that i started getting tears out of my eyes to have any chance of saving his thumb medic mark must ensure that the wound is clean and he doesn't go into shock he could have had circulation issues infection issues which may have in fact resulted in more than him just losing his thumb are you able to just move your hand this way like that's perfect oh yeah there you go i can see that through there yep so that's just above the uh as we started cutting a glove off we soon realised that the extent of damage to his thumb was immense there was nothing much holding it on and there's nothing that we could do to to improve that situation the helicopter manages to refuel and get carried to the hospital with a traumatic amputation like this every second counts if we weren't able to winch him off that boat in time it would have been a 10 or 12 hour to get back to was caught and then to hospital after that depending on the infection and being able to get on top of that there's potential to lose life as well it's too late too late to fall back on i'll see you it was over i decided that i didn't want to find other work well just wasn't me and so i decided to go back fishing i went see craig and he says come and do a trip wait oh yeah okay he's pretty robust terry so he's just persevered with it and he's working back on the boat now so he's back fishing good to hear that he's still out in the fishing industry doing his thing although he's lost his thumb it could have been a lot lot worse [Music] it was the whole thumb it was down here i wouldn't be doing the same thing i wouldn't be able to tie knots so half of it you see i can i can use that i'm happy that i've only lost half a thumb in [Music] you

Channel: National Geographic

Views: 574,430

Keywords: national geographic, nat geo, natgeo, animals, wildlife, science, explore, discover, survival, nature, culture, documentary, perpetual planet nat geo, photography, full episode, full episodes, explore with us, nat geo documentaries, survival games, documentary national geographic, nature 4k, survival tactics, nature documentary, survival challenge, survival skills, discovery channel, survival of the fittest

Id: Lk9QKRM_8Jo

Length: 44min 24sec (2664 seconds)

Published: Tue May 24 2022