The website bluewin.ch quoted information from the rescue team of Swiss airline Air Zermatt saying that at around 7:00 a.m. on September 23 local time, the airline's rescue department received an emergency call that two Vietnamese climbers were in trouble on the Matterhorn mountain.
However, the weather was so bad that it was impossible to rescue them by air or by road. At 1pm, three rescuers from the Zermatt rescue station decided to climb the Matterhorn to the site of the accident.
The Zermatt Bergbahnen cable car could only take the rescuers as far as the Schwarzsee, from where they had to continue on foot. They were exposed to snow, wind, ice, fog and cold. At an altitude of more than 3,500m, rescuers finally discovered the two climbers in distress.
Rescuers had to rappel down to reach the two climbers trapped in the difficult terrain. The two were severely hypothermic and wearing only light, low-heeled shoes and thin sneakers.
Due to adverse weather conditions, they could not be airlifted from the top of the Matterhorn, so rescuers had to bring them back to the normal route using a rope system.
The extremely difficult rescue was finally successful after 14 hours. The rescuers and the injured climbers were able to find safe shelter at Hörnli Hut.
At the same time, Air Zermatt prepared a helicopter to evacuate people from Hörnli Hut.
At 2 a.m. on September 24, the helicopter crew was able to take off in the direction of the Matterhorn and bring both the distressed climbers and rescue experts to safety in two flights.
Without the efforts of rescuers, the two Vietnamese climbers would have had difficulty surviving the harsh weather conditions and would have frozen to death, Air Zermatt said in a statement.
