On Saturday, March 7th, while descending Rysy, a mountain on the border of Poland and Slovakia, climber Leszek Piszczyk captured footage of another individual falling a fairly large distance down a crack on the mountain.
According to Piszczyk’s description, this was one of two incidents that occurred that day. The first saw a climber lose their balance, drop his ice axe, and slide down the entire crack with little to no way to stop. Piszczyk went down to assist a moment later, but he was fortunate to get away with nothing but pain in his little finger. His friend, a doctor, assessed him on site and he descended on his own.
The second accident occurred a bit lower down, with another guy getting hit by a block of ice. He lost his balance and fell, also losing his ice axe in the incident. This climber’s fall was shorter, but he was badly bruised. A guide who happened to be on the mountain solely came to assist, checking the man’s conditions, giving him food and water, and eventually deciding to bring him down the mountain.
The man was clearly getting weaker as time went on, so the team eventually handed him over to rescue crews. Later Piszczyk reports seeing ambulances with sirens blaring, indicating that help was already on the way. Both climbers are incredibly lucky that their injuries extended no further.
