Explorer rescued from cave after 12-day mission

In terms of complexity, it was the equivalent of a rescue mission from Mount Everest.

And it is now the most expensive rescue operation in German history.

An injured explorer trapped in Germany’s deepest cave system for 12 days was finally brought to the surface after a complex rescue operation involving 728 people from five countries, Bavaria’s mountain rescue service said.

Johann Westhauser, a 52-year old speleologist, injured his head in a rock fall on June 8 and was unable to climb back to the surface on his own as the ascent involved steep shafts and narrow tunnels.

He is now receiving emergency medical care.

The rescue took so long to complete because the injured man could not stand and the ascent involves steep and narrow horizontal and vertical shafts.

Some 70 rescue workers were in the 3,300 foot-deep cave to help recover the man while further teams, along with doctors, were waiting above ground, the local mountain rescue service said.

The man was one of the researchers who discovered the Riesending or “massive thing” cave system. Located near Bavaria’s border with Austria, its tunnels, shafts and caves extend over 19.2 kilometres.

A fit expert could scale the distance from the site of the accident to the entrance in about 12 hours, but rescuers had to haul Westhauser on a stretcher through the challenging terrain. The entrance to the cave is on a mountainside, some 1,800 meters (5,900ft) above sea level.

“It was one of the most difficult rescue operations in the history of the mountain rescue service,” said Klemens Reindl, who runs the service and who supervised the operation. “Especially, the international character of the mission was remarkable.”