Nadav Ben Yehuda

Nadav Ben Yehuda (Hebrew: נדב בן יהודה‎‎, born 1988) is an Israeli mountain climber, search and rescue professional, photographer and speaker. He is best known for saving the life of a Turkish climber just below the summit of Mount Everest in May 2012.

Early life

Ben Yehuda lives in Rehovot, Israel. He served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the Golani Brigade's reconnaissance unit.[1] In the unit, which is one of the IDF's elite comando units, he suffered from injuries both during training and operational activities.[2] Ben Yehuda studied law at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC), and was given distinguished athlete status.[3]

Climbing career and rescues

Ben Yehuda is the only Israeli experienced in search and rescue in complex alpine conditions.[4]

Everest rescue

Ben Yehuda is most famous for attempting Mount Everest in May 2012, and rescuing the Turkish climber Aydin Imrak, some 300 metres (980 ft) short of the summit. Ben Yehuda would have been the youngest Israeli to climb the mountain. Four climbers died on Mount Everest over the same weekend, after the large number of climbers created a bottleneck as weather conditions deteriorated.[5][6]

Ben Yehuda carried Imrak for several hours on their descent, after which the two were evacuated by helicopter to Kathmandu.[5][6] Both suffered injuries to their hands and their fingers were at risk of amputation.[7][8]

Ben Yehuda was awarded a citation as part of the youth President's Volunteer Award for his efforts.[9] The President of Israel at the time, Shimon Peres, said to Ben Yehuda: "You searched for a geographical peak and found a humanitarian peak".[1] He also received a medallion of courage from the Florida International University.[10]

Other rescues

In 2014, Ben Yehuda led an expedition to Tibet to promote organ donation, attempting to climb two mountains over 8,000 m in the same season, including the sixth highest mountain in the world at 8,206 m.[11] On his way back to Israel he stayed in Nepal due to the 2014 snowstorm disaster, and participated in rescue missions across the Annapurna range.[12] Ben Yehuda was called on by the Israeli embassy to rescue Emil Aljam, an Israeli climber hit by the same storm but trapped in the Everest range. On the second day of the search, Aljam extricated himself and came to the rescue base camp.[11] A week later he was the first Israeli responder to a fatal bus crash in Nepal, where two Israelis were killed and four seriously injured.[4]

Other climbs

In March 2012, Ben Yehuda doubled the national record, and climbed the Moshe Aviv Tower in Ramat Gan, the highest skyscraper in Israel, thirteen times in a row.[6] In September 2012, he climbed Mount Kazbek in Georgia,[7] and after that did a solo climb in Spain.[3]

In January 2015 Ben Yehuda climbed the Kilimanjaro with his girlfriend Lena Melankovich, where they got engaged.[12] In May 2016 he became the first Israeli to climb Annapurna I, the tenth highest, and the most dangerous mountain in the world.[13]

References

  1. 1 2 Dvir, Noam (September 4, 2012). "Presidential Citation for Youth Who Saved on Everest: 'Humanitarian Peak'". Ynet (in Hebrew). Retrieved October 2, 2014.
  2. ↑ Goldman, Regev (May 31, 2012). "The Youth Who Saved Turkish Climber: I Do Not Deserve Prize". nrg Maariv (in Hebrew). Retrieved October 2, 2014.
  3. 1 2 Gutman, Nimrod. "Climb–Extraction–Rescue: How Nadav Ben Yehuda, a Second-Year Law and Governance Student, Saved Another Climber at the Top of the Everest". Avangard Magazine (in Hebrew). Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. Retrieved October 2, 2014.
  4. 1 2 Dressler, Tamar (May 17, 2016). "The Victory is Life" (in Hebrew). Yedioth Ahronoth. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  5. 1 2 "Climber describes rescue near summit of Everest". The Guardian. May 25, 2012. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 "Israeli gives up on Everest summit to help Turkish climber". Times of Israel. May 22, 2012. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  7. 1 2 Davidovich, Joshua (September 19, 2012). "Heroic climber back on top of the world". Times of Israel. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  8. ↑ Reuven, Carmit (May 28, 2014). "Doctors fight to save Everest hero's fingers". Ynetnews. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Recipients of President's Volunteer Award for 5772 – 2012". Israel's Volunteering Web Portal (in Hebrew). Retrieved October 2, 2014.
  10. ↑ "Israeli rescues Turkish climber from the Death Zone on Everest". Florida International University. May 3, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  11. 1 2 Shiloni, Ruti (November 1, 2014). "Introducing the Israeli Rescuer Who Was Sent to the Nepal Disaster" (in Hebrew). Israel Channel 2. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  12. 1 2 Junger, Gal (January 27, 2015). "Peak Moment: He Took Out a Ring on the Mountain Summit". Walla! Mazal Tov (in Hebrew). Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  13. ↑ Eichner, Itamar (May 7, 2016). "Heroic mountain climber summits 10th tallest mountain". Ynetnews. Retrieved May 7, 2016.

External links

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