Friday, 26 August 2016

'I was frozen': Czech tourist missing for a month in New Zealand recalls ordeal-By Ben Westcott and James Griffiths,

Pavlina Pizova was trapped for over a month in the wilderness after a hiking accident.

Story highlights

  • Czech hiker Pavlina Pizova has described her harrowing ordeal
  • She survived for over a month in a hut after a tragic accident killed her partner
  • Numerous attempts to signal for help or hike out were unsuccessful
(CNN)The Czech couple knew they were in trouble.
As heavy snow continued to fall, making the hiking trail they were walking on New Zealand's south island slippery and treacherous, they decided to make for a small warden's hut nearby.
That was when tragedy struck. Ondrej Petr, 27, fell down a steep slope, becoming trapped in a heap of rocks and broken branches.
His partner, Pavlina Pizova, also injured in the fall, attempted to help him, but he soon succumbed to his injuries and the extreme weather.
Pizova said she huddled next to his lifeless body for almost 24 hours, wrapping herself in as many layers as she could find and hoping against hope that help would come.

Survivor

Finally, determined that she would not herself die, she struck out for the cabin alone, wading through deep snow covering the trail and other hiker's tracks for another two days until she found it.
She would spend the next five weeks in the hut, surviving off its meager winter supplies and attempting to reach the outside world. She even drew a giant letter "H" in the snow with ashes from the fire, but to no avail.
During her time in the hut, Pizova said she saw "many avalanches."
Finally, she was found on Wednesday by a helicopter search and rescue team, who had been alerted by friends back in the Czech Republic weeks after her disappearance.
Search and rescue teams found the missing hiker after almost five weeks.

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