British man is rescued with severe hypothermia after attempt to climb Mont Blanc in tracksuit

A British man is recovering in hospital after being saved ‘five minutes’ from death after attempting to climb Western Europe’s highest mountain – to celebrate his birthday – without the proper equipment.

Feda Hussein, 26, was found Sunday morning by Italy’s Aosta Valley mountain rescue service on the Bionnassay Glacier after calling for help the previous evening.

The aerospace engineer graduate got lost amid stormy conditions and ran into difficulties at an elevation of 3,100 meters (10,170ft) on the Italian side of the mountain range, but rescuers were unable to locate him on Saturday night due to harsh conditions.

When a rescue team spotted him from a helicopter and reached his position the next day, they were in disbelief to find that Hussein, wearing nothing but hiking boots, a tracksuit and draped in a sheet, was still alive.

He was found with a body temperature of 25 degrees C – a full 10 degrees below the hypothermia threshold and three degrees below the ‘death zone’ of 28 – but somehow he clung to life and was sent to the Parini Hospital in Aosta.

Experts describe the route to the top of Mt Blanc as a ‘beautiful and serious ascent of snow and ice’ that must be well explored and equipped.

But mountain rescue officials told MailOnline that Hussein, of Portsmouth, Hampshire, “was dressed as if he was taking a Sunday walk” without warm gear or weatherproof tent, despite bone-numbing temperatures and high winds.

The aerospace engineer graduate told police he’d wanted to climb the mountain as a “birthday gift to himself” — he turned 26 on October 1 the day he left to climb Mt Blanc.

“I wanted to climb Mt Blanc,” the climber told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.

“I left Val Veny on Friday to complete the ascent of the Italian normal route to Mont Blanc, which passes through the Gonella refuge.”

After spending Friday night in a tent on the nearby Miage Glacier, Hussein continued his journey on Saturday, only to get lost when the wind whipped up a blizzard.

‘I lost my way to the Gonella… I wasn’t far, but in that situation it was impossible to get there. I had to stop and try to take cover.’

He called a rescue team for help in the late hours of Saturday night, but conditions were so bad they couldn’t find him.

Aosta Valley Mountain Rescue technicians occasionally kept in touch with the lost mountaineer, but said their last communication came at 2:30 a.m., describing him as “exhausted but aware,” according to Italian authorities. Rai News.

Rescuers were blown away when they discovered that Hussein had attempted the massive climb without proper mountaineering gear, let alone ice picks, crampons and other essential pieces of climbing gear.

They suspected he was a desperate migrant who had chosen to take a mountain route to bypass border controls, and were surprised to find that he was in fact an ill-prepared British hiker.

A mountain rescue officer said: ‘His body temperature when he was found was 25c and normal is 37c, he was about five minutes from dying and was lucky to be found.

“He suffered from severe hypothermia and was immediately flown to the hospital where doctors began to get his body temperature back to normal.

The man said he tried to climb Mt Blanc, but the forecasts were bad and he was not at all well dressed for such an expedition – we do not recommend climbing at this time of year due to the weather.

“When he called to say he was lost he said it would be fine as he had a weatherproof tent but it was more of a tarp and he only had walking sticks.

Climbing to an altitude of 4,800m is serious business and should only be attempted by experienced climbers who are well prepared and well equipped.

“Due to the weather, we couldn’t send a team until the next morning, so we had to tell him to stay put and find shelter.

“At one point we couldn’t get him on the phone and there was a real fear that he was dead, but he was lucky we found him. Five more minutes and he would have been dead.”

He added: “It is costly to send a crew up to rescue someone from the mountain in a helicopter, especially someone who has attempted an ascent ill-equipped and we are considering giving him a 1500 euro bill. send for the rescue.’

In August, an outraged mayor on the French side of the Alpine mountains introduced a policy requiring ‘pseudo mountaineers’ to pay a £13,000 deposit to cover their funeral and rescue costs before being allowed to climb.

Jean-Marc Peillex, the mayor of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, from where climbers can reach the summit along the Goûter route, introduced the measure after dozens of people continued to defy the warnings.

The substantial deposit is split into two parts: €10,000 will cover the cost of a mountain rescue and €5,000 will cover the cost of a funeral.

The route is open to anyone of all skill levels and officials have said the number of inexperienced climbers is on the rise.

In a statement on Twitter, Peillex said the idea for the deposit came after five Romanian visitors attempted the ascent “wearing shorts, trainers and straw hats” and had to be turned back by mountain police.

“Sometimes stupid people only react to stupid ideas,” the mayor told The Telegraph.

‘They have the same approach as someone who wants to commit suicide. So I say let’s do it right and ask them to pay us the cost that this entails.

“People want to climb into their backpacks with death,” he added.

“So let’s anticipate the costs of having to rescue them and their funeral, because it’s unacceptable for the French taxpayer to foot the bill.”

However, the mayor of Courmayeur, who sits at the foot of Mont Blanc on the Italian side of the border, called the decision “surreal” and stated that the Italian side “will not limit hikers’ ascent”.

“The mountain is not property,” said Roberto Rota.

“As administrators, we limit ourselves to pointing out when the trails aren’t in the best condition, but asking for a deposit to climb to the top is really surreal. You can decide to close a path or a passage if there is a real risk,” the mayor told Corriere.

According to the latest available figures, some 25,000 people reach the top of Mt Blanc every year and five years ago France introduced legislation to tackle climbers who went out ill-equipped and had to be rescued.