'These guys are incredible': Climbers grateful to be rescued after cold night in North Shore mountains

Two climbershave been rescued from Crown Mountain on Tuesday morning, having spent a night stuck in the cold after one of them broke an ankle.

Serguei Okountsev, whose partner slipped and fell, said they feel "super lucky" and grateful to North Shore Rescue crews.

"It's amazing. These guys are incredible, unreal. It's hard to describe what I felt when I saw their headlamps down in the gully,"he said after the rescue.

Okountsevsaid his climbing partner slipped and fell about 45 metres in the Widowmakerarea, which is closed to the public this time of year.

She ended up with a broken ankle, fractured finger, a cut to her face and possible fractured ribs.

"She fell so far, I couldn't see her,"Okountsevsaid.

He said he climbed down to where she landed,activated their emergency locator beacon andhunkered down to wait.

North Shore Rescue crews were dispatched to look for the pair after hearing the beacon on Monday evening.

Teamsfound themin the Hanes Valley area, but it wasn't safe to rescue the pair in the dark.

A Talon helicopter was sent to assess the situation at first light and the pair was lifted out with a long line.

An ambulance took Okountsev's climbing partner to hospital.

Okountsevsaid they stayed awake all night, keeping warm with tarps and other emergency supplies they'd packed.The volunteer rescue team who found the climbersset up campwithin shouting distance and stayed with them all night.

The climber said the rescue efforts left him speechless.

"These are unpaid volunteers," he added. "I don't know what to say...such commitment."

The pair wason a training climb for Denali North America's highest peak, in Alaska and were well prepared with the locatorbeacon as well as a satellite phone.

"We really had little information last night other than the beacon going off and indicating their location," NSRteam leader Mike Danks said.

"This situation could have turned into something a lot worse if they had no means of communication, but having that spot device makes a huge difference because you can get a signal out from anywhere.

"The sat phone just provides even more information, but even that wasn't able to get through every time like the beacon."

PeterHaigh, who was on hand for the rescue Tuesday, said Hanes Valley "is not a nice area to be in" and that the climbers "shouldn't have been there."

"You get cold in a hurry," he said. "It could have been a lot worse if they weren't as prepared as they were."

Busy Family Day

Tuesday's rescue caps what was a busy Family Day stretch for the North Shore team. Dankssaid eightcalls for help came in from three different mountainswithin an eight-hour stretch.

Danks said a lot of those callswere for people who were "actually prepared" for the conditions, but had taken a "legitimate fall."

"I think we got pretty lucky given the amount of people that were in the backcountry," he said. "Some of those people were pretty lucky too because some of those falls could have been fatal."

The team leader also thanked rescue crews who gave up their holiday Monday to help.

"Respect to our team members. They were out in full force and did an excellent job. They missed their Family Day, but we signed up to do this job for our community and all the calls had a happy ending so it was very positive for us," he said.

Dankssaid the busy day can serve as a reminder to be prepared by checking bulletins, talking with mountain staff and getting trained in avalanche safety.

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With files from Megan Batchelor