Xinjiang successfully rescued six stranded and injured hikers from inland who were crossing the Wolf Tower C Route, helping them escape danger.
At around 15:00 on September 25, the Autonomous Region Emergency Office received a call from members of a mountain rescue team, reporting that six hikers from Dalian, Liaoning Province, had begun crossing the Wolf Tower C Route (a hiking trail from Hutubi County to Baluntai in Hejing County, requiring 7–8 days to complete on foot, with no human habitation along the route) four days earlier. One of them had been experiencing abdominal pain since noon on September 23 and was unable to walk, suspected of having gastric bleeding—an urgent situation. Additionally, due to the delay in their journey, the food they had brought could only last the six people for another two days.
After receiving the report, the Autonomous Region Emergency Office considered that if a ground rescue team were dispatched, it would take two days at the fastest to locate the stranded individuals and three to four days to extract them from the location. Under these conditions, the injured person and the other five would be at risk of life-threatening danger. Therefore, they reported the situation to Nur Bekri, Deputy Secretary of the Autonomous Region Party Committee and Chairman of the Autonomous Region. The Autonomous Region Party Committee and Government attached great importance to the matter, and Chairman Nur Bekri immediately instructed that the Xinjiang Military Region be consulted to use helicopters and make every effort to rescue the six stranded individuals.
Leaders of the Xinjiang Military Region instructed that the matter be handled as an emergency, and promptly notified the army aviation unit to prepare for the rescue operation. At 18:18, staff from the Autonomous Region Emergency Office took a helicopter to begin the search and rescue mission, and soon located the stranded individuals. Due to limited landing conditions at the site, the helicopter was forced to land at an altitude of 3,100 meters, and four rescuers began searching on foot toward the location of the stranded individuals downhill. At a distance of over 700 meters from the stranded individuals, where the slope of the mountain was nearly 70 degrees, and because it was an untraveled path, descending was extremely difficult. It took the rescuers over half an hour to reach the stranded individuals. The ill person was preliminarily diagnosed with gastric bleeding and could neither be carried nor lifted. The rescuers had to carefully support the patient and inch him upward.
At this point, Yili Simayi, head of the Autonomous Region Emergency Office leading the team, decided to send someone back to notify the helicopter crew to attempt to hover the helicopter at a flatter area at an altitude of 2,700 meters, while the others helped the ill person move to the designated spot to await helicopter rescue.
Zhao Bin, the leader of the army aviation unit piloting the rescue helicopter, was even more anxious. As night fell, failure to return the helicopter in time would mean traversing high mountain gorges in darkness—with potentially disastrous consequences. But the patient’s condition was critical, and without timely medical treatment, there was a risk of death. Finally, they made a bold decision to do their utmost to enter the gorge. The helicopter took off again, slowly entering the gorge, with its rotor almost scraping the cliffs on both sides. The powerful turbulence battered the helicopter, causing it to shake continuously. In the end, the helicopter landed little by little on a small flat area not far from the patient. At 20:25, rescuers carried the patient onto the helicopter, distributed food and water to the rescued individuals, and the helicopter returned.
At 21:06, the helicopter landed safely. The patient was then taken to the Emergency Department of the Military Region General Hospital. After diagnosis, surgery was performed, and the other rescued individuals are currently recovering. (End)
The above content is transferred from Xinhua Net, Xinjiang Channel
Weibo post from Nan Shan Nan