The stunning moment hikers found Hadi on a hillside

As hiker Jessica Dart embraced the exhausted 23-year-old in front of her, tears streaming down their faces, she could hardly believe her eyes.

It was Wednesday afternoon and Dart was in the early stages of an overnight trek climbing Mount Kosciuszko with her cousin Joshua Dart and friend James Clark when they heard yelling in the distance.

Hadi Nazari (centre) was found by hikers near Blue Lake in Kosciuszko National Park on Wednesday, after a fortnight missing.

The trio had just reached a lookout near Blue Lake in Kosciuszko National Park and were taking photos of the sprawling view in front of them when they spotted a speck in the distance.

“Is that a person?” Jessica Dart, a nurse from Sydney, remembers asking.

The small dot was clambering up the steep ridge towards them, calling for help.

“Stay here, please don’t leave,” the person pleaded.

Jessica Dart recounts her experience after finding missing hiker Hadi Nazari.Credit: Marta Pascual Juanola

As the trio rushed down the slope to help, the speck slowly became a face Dart recognised from a sign she had seen that morning at one of the national park’s offices. It was missing Melbourne student Hadi Nazari.

“He was yelling, ‘I haven’t eaten in seven days, I’ve been out here for seven days’,” Dart said.

“Once we were within earshot I said, ‘What’s your name?’ and he said ‘Hadi’. And then, at that moment, we all just looked at each other like, ‘Oh my god, this is the guy.’”

Dart asked Nazari, who appeared disoriented, if he had been missing since Boxing Day.

“He’s like ‘yeah, seven days ago’. I showed him my phone with the date and his face just dropped. In that moment I started crying, he started crying, hugging each other,” Dart said.

Nazari, who was found some 10 kilometres from where he had last been seen, had in fact been missing for 13 days.

“We sort of sat down on the mountain there, and he just … collapses into Jess’ arms in tears,” Joshua Dart said. “And before you know it, there’s about 10 of us there. All formed around him, hugging him, offering him water, offering him food.”

Nazari with rescue personnel in the helicopter that winched him to safety.Credit: NSW Police

Joshua called triple zero and within 20 minutes Nazari was being winched into a helicopter.

“In the meantime, he called his family on someone else’s phone, and … he was just in tears. He’s crying, talking to his family for the first time. [It] was hectic,” Joshua said.

He said Nazari – who had survived on foraged berries and two muesli bars – was in good spirits and cracked jokes, then shook everyone’s hand before he was winched out by helicopter.

Nazari issued a statement on Thursday afternoon, saying: “I would like to thank all of the emergency services personnel for their tireless work searching for 13 days in tough conditions to locate me.

“I would also like to thank members of the public, family and friends for their well-wishes and prayers.”

After a tearful reunion with loved ones at the emergency command centre in Geehi, Nazari was taken by ambulance to Cooma Hospital, where he remained on Thursday evening.

His sister Zahra Nazari said on Thursday that the hikers who found her brother were “angels sent from the sky”.

Hussain Ali, cousin of hiker Hadi Nazari, speaks to the media outside Cooma Hospital on Thursday.Credit: AAP

“He’s doing well. He’s recovering. Obviously, he’s dehydrated, he needs to take some more time. He might stay there for a couple of days,” she said.

“I stand before you today with a heart full of relief, thankfulness, gratitude and profound appreciation for remarkable work done by the search and rescue team to find my brother.”

Outside the hospital in Cooma, Nazari’s cousin Hussain Ali said the 23-year-old was grateful to God he was safe and sound, and in “really good condition”.

“We were surprised,” Ali said. “He had a sandwich last night and a few Powerades, and he was excited to eat.”

Nazari had blisters on his feet that meant he could not walk and a few minor scratches, but no major injury, Ali said. The 23-year-old planned to rest for a couple of weeks once he returned to Melbourne, his cousin said.

“When he’s completely fit and fine, then he’ll see how he goes. When we found him, he was keen to go for another hike and I was like, ‘No mate, no more hiking for you,’” Ali said.

“He can write a book, or there will be a movie on him as well. Surviving on that mountain, it’s not easy for 13 days and nights.”

Nazari went missing on December 26 after he separated from two friends to take some photos as they descended the Hannels Spur Trail in the NSW park, at the tail end of a multi-day trek near Australia’s highest mountain, and lost his way.

His disappearance sparked a search involving more than 300 people.

Nazari reported seeing helicopters flying overhead as rescuers scoured the bushland, but they could not spot him in the dense terrain. He managed to shelter from the elements using a tent and spent a couple of nights at the Opera House Hut, a remote stone hut at the base of Lady Northcote Canyon only accessible through a rock scamble down a ridge and a scrub bash from Olsen’s Lookout.

Jess Dart said it was baffling that Nazari had been able to make it through so many nights.

“Last night I was wearing so many layers and shivering. He told us he had no tent for at least a few nights … But even with a tent, fleece, down jacket and all of the gear I was shivering all night.”

Chris Ryder, deputy commissioner of volunteer organisation VRA Rescue NSW, said people underestimated the danger of Australia’s alpine conditions, which could be compared to those in Canada and Alaska.

“It’s really hard to work out where you are once you’re in there, because it’s so deep, and it’s so dense on those western faces,” Ryder said.

“You would have the headaches that go with not being sufficiently hydrated, you’d have high levels of anxiety and fear, and you’d have confusion just because you don’t know where you are.”

Hiking guide Keith Scott has traversed the Hannels Spur trail – where Nazari went missing – dozens of times, and said it was always worth carrying emergency communication equipment.

“It’s incredibly steep, and the undergrowth is incredibly thick. So it just means that energy reserves [get] used up pretty quickly when you’re trying to push your way through,” Scott said.

“Particularly in country like that, you really do need to be carrying an emergency beacon and preferably a GPS.”

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