Two French climbers wanted in the Andes

Argentine rescuers were on Monday looking for two French climbers who are said to be in difficulty in the face of difficult weather conditions in the area of ​​the Andean volcano Ojos del Salado, which rises to 6,891 meters above sea level in the northwest of the country, announced the police. The mountain people who had undertaken its ascent sent a satellite distress signal and a team of high-mountain rescuers got into working order on Sunday afternoon.

The help was on Sunday evening at some 5,500m altitude, where they set up a temporary camp, before the resumption of research in the early hours on Monday. These were to resume against a backdrop of “difficult climatic conditions, with heavy rains and hailstorms in high mountains,” according to a statement from the police of the province of Catamarca, on the night from Sunday to Monday.

Rescuers were also able to establish that the group of French people initially consisted of three men, one of whom turned around for problems with acclimatization to the altitude, while the other two continued to climb. The climber who came down was “in good health”, according to the police.

According to local media, the French climbers arrived last week in Fiambala, 1,357 km northwest of Buenos Aires. They had to undertake the ascent of the snow-capped peak of Ojos de Salado, considered the highest volcano in the world on the border of Chile and Argentina, by the so-called Quebrada de Quemadito route, at an altitude of 3,400 m, which requires at least ten days of hiking.