I’m alive thanks to a cook and a drone
Missing Scot describes lucky escape after fall
A CLIMBER feared dead in the Himalayas was rescued with the help of a drone – after his rucksack was spotted by a base camp cook.
Rick Allen was descending from a solo climb to the summit of 26,401ft Broad Peak when he fell.
His climbing partner Sandy Allan had returned to camp BY CHARLIE GALL after deciding to turn back due to high winds.
The rest of the team stayed at Camp 3 and considered their options for reaching the summit.
Rick, from Aboyne in Aberdeenshire, made a bid to reach the top last Monday, after climbing all day and night. But he was feared injured until a Japanese cook saw his rucksack.
The drone, piloted by Polish brothers Andrzej and Bartek Bargiel, was then used to pinpoint his whereabouts.
The device guided sherpas and climbers to Rick’s location at an ice cliff.
After being brought back to a base camp, he was flown from the area by helicopter for treatment to frozen toes.
His friend and long-time climbing partner Sandy, from Newtonmore in Inverness-shire, said: “He’s a tough and strongwilled man and also incredibly lucky that a cook and then the drone spotted him.
“We were convinced he was dead. He’s my best high altitude climbing pal.”
Rick previously lost half of one of his big toes to frostbite during an expedition.
In 2012, he and Sandy completed what was described as the last great unclimbed route in the Himalayas, reaching the peak of Nanga Parbat in Pakistan via the Mazeno Ridge.