A rescue team had been looking for them since Sunday, in difficult weather conditions.
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Two French climbers were found unharmed in the area of the Andean volcano Ojos del Salado, local authorities announced on Tuesday (December 28th). The mountaineers had undertaken the ascent of this popular summit, considered the highest volcano in the world (6,891 meters), from the city of Fiambala. They had sent a distress satellite signal this weekend in difficult weather conditions. A team of high mountain rescuers set out on Sunday afternoon, with heavy rains and hailstorms in the high mountains.
The two French were discovered Monday at about 5,600 m above sea level, a little higher than the temporary camp that the rescue team had to set up for the night of Sunday, before resuming searches in the early hours on Monday. The two climbers present “logical health problems (dehydration) given the difficult context they had to face, but without major risks for their integrity”, explained the Ministry of Security of the province of Catamarca on his Facebook account (in Spanish).
They were transferred to an intermediate base camp in Cortaderas and were due to arrive overnight in Fiambala where “they will receive all the necessary attention”, according to the provincial ministry and civil defense. Rescuers had established that the French group initially consisted of three men, one of whom had turned around for altitude acclimatization problems, while the other two continued to climb. The climber who came down was “in good health”, according to the provincial police.
According to local media, the French climbers arrived in Fiambala last week. They had to undertake the ascent of the snow-capped peak of Ojos de Salado, on the border of Chile and Argentina, by the so-called Quebrada de Quemadito route, at an altitude of 3,400 m at the start, which requires at least ten hiking days.