Rescued skier faces leg surgery
Published: September 28, 2004
A man rescued from Victoria’s highest peak today after a skiing accident yesterday afternoon will undergo surgery on his broken leg tomorrow.
The skier, Harry Birch, 43, endured a cold night on Mount Bogong, in Victoria’s north east, with friends after he fell and broke his left leg about 2.50pm (AEST) yesterday.
Mr Birch’s friends carried him to Cleve Cole Hut, 1760 metres above sea level, to shelter for the night and await a rescue.
The hut was named after a Cleve Cole, a Victorian skiing pioneer who died after he was trapped on Mount Bogong in the winter of 1936, and was built in 1937 to shelter skiers and walkers in the area.
It is about 220 metres below the mountain’s summit.
Temperatures at the nearby Falls Creek ski resort fell to below zero overnight.
Attempts to rescue Mr Birch today were earlier hampered by thick fog.
A Metropolitan Ambulance Service spokesman said an air ambulance landed safely in the area after the weather cleared about 12.30pm (AEST) today.
Mr Birch was taken to Latrobe Regional Hospital in Traralgon, 160 km east of Melbourne.
Speaking from his hospital bed, Mr Birch told AAP the night in the hut was “very comfortable” with his friends apart from the pain of his broken leg.
“I was with a party of skiers. We retreated to a safe place overnight to await an air evacuation,” Mr Birch said.
“I’ll have an operation tomorrow.”
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