Miracle！A 29-year-old man surnamed Li from Taipei applied to enter the mountains from Nantou on the 13th of last month, planning to cross the Central Mountain Range and arrive in Hualien on the 28th. Unexpectedly, he has been missing for a full month. Search efforts by police and firefighters in the mountains have yielded no results for several days. Early yesterday morning, it was reported that they received a distress call from Mr. Li, who said his injured calf had affected his progress and that his food supplies had run out. The fire department plans to enter the mountains for rescue as soon as possible before heavy rain arrives.
Wang Mingzhong, captain of the Second Battalion of the Hualien County Fire Bureau, said that on the morning of the 14th, they received seven distress calls from the male hiker, stating that he had fallen into a valley, fracturing his left calf, and with insufficient food, could only wait for rescue at the site. By comparing the call location, it is preliminarily determined that he may be trapped along the Dahuai Mountain West Ridge Baling Line at an altitude of about 2,457 meters.
As the route Mr. Li was taking — the “Mudan Yanha Transverse” — is a relatively less-explored trail with dense jungle and unclear paths, after sending a text message to his parents on the 15th of last month from near Mudan Pond at an altitude of nearly 3,000 meters to “report safety,” he has been out of contact since. His family reported him missing on the 3rd, and for the past 11 days, over a hundred search personnel have been mobilized, splitting into two teams to search in Bashawan Mountain and Xinmugua areas, akin to “searching for a needle in a haystack.”
Wang Mingzhong pointed out, “Rescue is important, but we cannot put our team members in danger.” With heavy rain expected to hit Taiwan soon and poor weather conditions in the mountains, it could take up to seven days to walk into the area. They will assess the weather situation and dispatch four to five experienced rescue team members to enter the mountains and conduct the rescue in the rain. Once the weather improves, helicopters will also be deployed flexibly for initial aerial searches and air drops of food.