Rescued Kosciuszko hiker Hadi Nazari ‘really struggling’ when he finally found help
Hadi Nazari was ‘really struggling’ when he stumbled across a group of hikers and thought he had been lost for a week instead of 13 days, one of the bushwalkers who found him has revealed.
One of the bushwalkers who rescued a lost Kosciuszko hiker has revealed the moment they discovered Hadi Nazari calling for help after almost a fortnight alone in the wilderness.
Hiker Jess Dart and her group found Mr Nazari at 3.15pm on Wednesday when he was calling for help off the Kosciuszko circuit walk near Blue Lake, at the centre of the national park and west of the Snowy River.
She described him clambering up from a lower outcrop to reach Ms Dart, who was with her friend and her cousin.
“He was really struggling, and I also noticed he had no pack, no gear, which also made me think, maybe this person is actually in trouble, or someone else is in trouble down there,” she told The Australian.
“He was definitely sunburnt, his nose had a big lot of deep peeling. His hands were all scratched up and purple. But I think the adrenaline must have set in when he saw people, because he scrambled up basically the edge of a very steep valley. As we came down, he was coming up to us.
“I said to Josh and James, ‘I think this is the guy from the news’. And then he yelled out, ‘I’ve been out here for seven days. I haven’t had anything to eat for seven days’.
“I told him ‘you’ve been missing since Boxing Day, Hadi’ … and then I showed him the date.
“In that moment, he just had a shocked look on his face, and I started tearing up, he started crying, and then we hugged.”
Mr Nazari was overjoyed at having found his way back, and Ms Dart, 29, said that it took no time at all for him to start cracking jokes.
“I’m glad I missed New Year’s Eve. I don’t like New Year’s Eve … I was probably better off here.”
In the 25 minutes she estimated it took a helicopter to arrive, he told them about his ordeal. “He was telling us about how he’d ditched his different things along the way to lighten his load … but I think he wasn’t probably thinking clearly enough to think about getting things out like a sleeping bag or a jacket,” Ms Dart said.
“He’d actually seen the helicopters flying over him and tried to get their attention. But I think because he was in the dense bushland, they couldn’t see him.
“I was sitting next to him when he made that call (to his mother), and you could just hear them cheering and crying.
When the helicopter arrived he thanked all his rescuers. “That’s my ride,” she heard him say.
Hadi Nazari thanks searchers
Mr Nazari, 23, thanked searchers for their “tireless work” in tough conditions during the 13 days he spent lost, with only two muesli bars found in a hut to sustain him.
Mr Nazari was last seen after midday on Boxing Day descending the Hannels Spur trail between Khancoban and Thredbo. Paramedics said he was in “a very remarkable condition” for someone who was missing for so long.
In a newly-released photo, Mr Nazari is seen beaming and giving a thumbs up to his PolAir rescuer, safely seated in a helicopter travelling over Kosciuszko National Park.
He also released a statement via NSW Police ahead of a reunion with friends and family in Melbourne, appealing for privacy as he recovers from his 13-day ordeal.
“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,” Mr Nazari said.
“I would also like to thank members of the public, family and friends for their well wishes and prayers.
“As I continue to recover, I ask the media for privacy at this time.”
Hiking community ‘never gave up hope’
Fellow hiker Ali Qasimi helped monitor search efforts following pleas from the missing medical student’s sister. He was overjoyed by Mr Nazari’s safe return, and said he was expecting to see him in Melbourne on Friday following his discharge from Cooma Hospital.
Mr Qasimi’s group Hazara Hikers for Australia has members across Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney who are united by their connection to their home city of Quetta, along the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“I didn’t know much about Hadi, but I knew him because we are from the same city, our background is the same,” Mr Qasimi told The Australian on Thursday.
While Mr Qasimi had not heard of Mr Nazari until he went missing, one of his closest friends Juma Khan is the father of Mr Nazari’s hiking mate Mazar Ali.
On December 27, as Mr Ali began to reckon with his friend’s disappearance, he called his father to break the news. In a coincidence, Mr Khan was on his own hike atop Mount Bogong in Victoria, accompanied by Mr Qasimi.
“When we were there, there was no reception. I remember, it was on Sunday when we got reception, and my friend (Mr Khan), his phone was ringing but he said, ‘don’t worry. I don’t have to answer’, but someone kept calling him,” Mr Qasimi said.
“When he answered and when he saw his phone, he said ‘it’s my son?’ – because he told us that his son is also on hike with his two other friends, they were supposed to come home on Thursday, but they should be home by now.
“When he talked with his son (Mr Ali), the son said ‘one of my friends is missing’, and since that time, we were very worried.”
With community members spread over the country it has become somewhat of a tradition to make the journey out twice a year for a hike. But those plans were brought to a halt, and Mr Qasimi’s tight-knit Quetta community began devoting all the help it could to the search effort.
“It was very stressful for me and for all our community. But I was very hopeful. I was very hopeful because Hadi belongs to Quetta,” Mr Qasimi said. “Balochistan (the province in which Quetta sits) is surrounded by mountains, and every child — since he starts walking — goes to the mountains.
“Hiking is in our blood. So I was very hopeful that Hadi would definitely find his way.
“One of his friends was at the Kosciuszko National Park with the rescue team every single day. I was calling him and asking about the updates, and he said, ‘no, there’s no update’. But every day I gave him hope.
“When I spoke yesterday with one of our friends, they said Hadi’s feeling good.”
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