The Verzasca valley is not only attractive in summer. This winter, crowds of tourists are drawn to what is probably the most beautiful valley in Ticino. Attraction: the Vogorno reservoir will be completely emptied for the first time in 56 years. Old streets and settlements become visible. Some cannot resist and make their way into the muddy pool.
So also on Thursday. Shortly after twelve noon, a Zurich pensioner descends on the old paths. “He had already descended around 150 meters when he deviated from the old road to get to the water limit,” says Andres Maggini (48), head of the Locarno mountain rescue team. “There the earth is so saturated with water and heavy that it becomes the purest quicksand”.
Pensioners tried to get out of the mud
The man sank up to his lower legs in the mud. With every movement he only penetrated deeper into the mud. The shoes got stuck. For a good 45 minutes he tried desperately to free himself from the trap. Fortunately, another visitor was standing on the dam wall and holding his binoculars at the crater landscape of the emptied lake. Then he saw the man waving. He immediately alerted the police.
Around 1 p.m. the Kapo arrives, accompanied by the community police. A little later, the mountain rescue team, equipped with ropes, descends into the lake basin. “We were eight people,” explains Andres Maggini. “The ground was extremely slippery.” Together they pull the German-speaking Swiss out of his predicament.
Exhausted and hypothermic
The man was at the end of his strength and already slightly hypothermic. “He wouldn’t have made the way up. So we called a Rega helicopter, which flew it to the nearest hospital, ”says Andres Maggini. The man was hung on a winch, flown to the nearest landing site by helicopter and taken to the hospital.
As with the beautiful but treacherous Verzasca River in summer, the mountain rescuer warns tourists: “The descent into the emptied lake is dangerous. Stay on the streets and don’t try to get to the remaining water. “