Don't go hiking on a day like this

Today after work my intention was to go climbing. Cody's intention was to pick up one of his clients from the airport. All flights were cancelled today due to the storm. All buses. All ferries. Some schools were closed. So he came with me to climb instead. We just arrived at the climbing gym when I got the call from Red Cross. An american tourist had went up Reinebringen today all alone and now he is lying there with a broken foot...

Albert (my team leader) came and picked me up. I didn't have my hiking shoes so we had to pick those up first and then it took 1,5 hours until we came there. Our first information was not correct they told us his ankle was sprained and he was heading down which was not true. It was broken and he could not move. Anyway headlamps on and we went up. Each 5 minutes we had to call in to HRS (main rescue central) and as we were just 200 m below him we got order to turn around due to the wind and avalanche risk grade 3. Which was hard since I was never afraid and wanted to reach him since he must be damn cold up there (by now at least 4 hours since he called). So we went down and had to await the alpine rescue team arriving from Svolvær. When they finally arrived the helicopter was hovering above him to check the area and see if the could lift him directly. They tried three times but wind was too strong. So they had to leave the team at Reine and have a taxi to bring them to where we were waiting. They got all their gear and went up with one guy who knows the area so in total 7 persons. After a while the wind got calmer and they tried again and managed to lift him this time. Which is good because it would have taken almost two hours to get up there in these conditions. The flew him straight to Bodø since he was probably close to hypothermia.

So whatever you do, be careful out there. Don't go hiking on a day like this and never go unprepared. Weather changes fast here in Lofoten, you should be ready for all kinds of weather. If you are not used to winter conditions don't go. And most important dont go on your own.

I also want to share Cody's post about this...