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Xavier Murillo is missing in Peru


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#1 Bùi Thái Giang

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Posted 05 July 2011 - 11:54 PM

Xavier Murillo is missing: DONATIONS NEEDED
Organiser of the Paragliding World Cup has been missing in Peru since Friday 1 July. DONATE to the search and rescue effort
Posted Image
Xavier Murillo has gone missing whilst paragliding in the Andes. Photo: Peter Chrzanowski

Tuesday 5 July 2011 1pm GMT

The Paragliding World Cup Association is appealing for funds to help find Xavier. Payments can be made through PayPal (you do not need a PayPal account to donate – just a card). Please donate what you can: every pound/euro/dollar counts.

DONATE: Xavier Murillo Search and Rescue Fund

The Paragliding World Cup is updating its website as information comes in. They report:

At present a search and rescue operation is under way, but missing resources are slowing down the searches.

The Paragliding World Cup Association has asked Mike Christiansen, a Chilean pilot, to go there and assure the coordination of the rescue team as well as reporting to Xavier’s family, the French embassy and the World Cup Association. Mike is assisted by Stefan Zumsteg, a Swiss pilot living at Lima.

The Paragliding World Cup Association committee is now guaranteeing that enough money is available to carry out the search operation with the maximum speed.

We are urgently raising funds to make sure that we can continue to search with the maximum efficiency. Please make a donation.

Facebook users: Please post this link

Monday  4 July 2011 22:30 GMT

We just spoke Peter Chrzanowski in Huaraz, Peru. He told us that there is still no sign of Xavier.

“After the first plane was turned away, a second turned up and took six of us up. We made five passes and flew a total of 450km looking for Xavier. Cloudbase was quite low still though and we could only get up to the bottom of the glaciers. Had he been on the ground below the glaciers we’d have seen him though as we were flying really low.”

Peter and the team were airborne for over two hours.

The search continues again tomorrow, hopefully with a helicopter too.

Monday 4 July 2011 15:00 GMT

“Bad politics” are hampering the search for Xavier Murillo who has gone missing in the Andes in Peru according to X-Andes organiser Canadian pilot Peter Chrzanowski.

Xavier went missing on Friday 1 July after failing to report back after launching from Caraz in the Cordillera Blanca.

And now search and rescue efforts, hampered over the weekend by bad weather and low cloud, have run into trouble over bureaucracy.

The rescue plane, expected to take off to look for Xavier this morning (Monday 4 July), was instead cancelled at the last minute. Politics and infighting between rival rescue companies have been blamed for the delay.

Xavier, 49, has been flying for over 25-years. He was taking part in a reconnaissance trip for an adventure flying race called the X-Andes, an X-Alps-style cross country flying comp in the Andes scheduled to take place next year.

The X-Andes reconnaissance trip has been exploring the Huaraz valley and surrounding area in search of the best route for the X-Andes to take.

The Huaraz valley is several hundred kilometres long and cuts a clean line between the massive peaks of the Corderilla Blanca and the Corderilla Negra mountain ranges. The Corderilla Blanca contains 16 peaks over 6,000m and an estimated 260 separate glaciers.

Speaking from a hotel in Huaraz this morning Peter Chrzanowski said: “[Friday] was a beautiful day. Quite a bit of wind up high, but still fine.

“We were flying from a new site we have developed near Caraz, about 70km north of Huaraz. We had organised a day for the local media so there were lots of people and cameras on launch.

“The tandems launched first then Xavier, Jeff [Cristol] and James [Kiwi] Johnson and the other pilots.

“Jeff and James both landed saying it was strong but they could still penetrate. Xavier was last seen heading back into the big stuff.

“He was high, around 6,000m, when we last saw him and [he] looked confident in where he was going. We thought he was off to take some photos.”

The Corderilla Blanca forms a north to south running barrier interspersed with high cols and deep canyons that the air rushes through.

“We were all very aware of the venturi effect of the air rushing between the high peaks. We had talked about it together, and the canyons, so Xavier was well aware of the dangers they could pose. He was well above them though,” Peter said.

Posted Image
Jeff Cristol paragliding at Caraz in Peru where Xavier Murillo launched from. Photo: Peter Chrzanowski

The route from Caraz to Huaraz, the nearest big city, is a classic cross country paragliding route in Peru and follows a 60km valley in the shadow of 6,768m Huascaran mountain.

As classic as it is though, there is no resident flying scene, paragliding school or even tandem operation to speak of. The only flying there is carried out by adventurous visiting pilots.

Xavier was carrying a radio and a mobile phone, Peter said, although he was not using a Spot device or other tracking device.

“There’s good cell phone and radio coverage all over the Corderilla Blanca,” Peter said.

“If he landed up high in the glaciers it’s likely he’d have coverage. If he landed lower down then there are people. Lots of people. That’s the beauty of Peru, there are people everywhere.”

He said the rescue operation had been ongoing for two days. “We’ve driven up to the roadheads of some of the valleys and high up on the other side of the main valley and tried radioing across into the Corderilla Blanca in the hope of making contact.”

After failing to report back on Friday evening the alarm was raised on Saturday and a search by car and foot begun.

Low cloud meant an air search could not be carried out over the weekend. However, Monday morning dawned fine in Huaraz and hopes were high that an air search could be carried out.

However, that has not happened.

Peter explained in an email after we had spoken to him: “The plane was cancelled [this morning] because of bad politics.”

Organising air search and rescue is notoriously difficult in Peru and, with helicopter companies quoting two to three days to organise a chopper, Peter said he opted to rent a private plane to search for Xavier.

“All other [rescue] outfits told us [they need notice of] two or three days for a helicopter, so we went to a faster aircraft company instead,” Peter said.

However, the plane company is not certified for air search and rescue, so the insurance company involved has refused to guarantee payment. As a result, the aircraft did not take off.

Peter thinks, “other rescue outfits in Peru” have been “lobbying” to be used instead of pulling together to rescue Xavier.

He added, “[We want to] put pressure on the insurance company to allow a plane to search until a helicopter can take over.”

It is not known how quickly another air search can be organised. Questions over Xavier’s insurance – reported to be only €10,000 for search and rescue – have been raised but at the time of writing we have been unable to confirm what the position is.

The French Embassy in Lima has been informed and is involved in the search. The Paragliding World Cup Association is also in close contact with Peter in Peru.

• A Facebook page has been set up by friends of Xavier in an attempt to help coordinate information flow.

• There is also a thread on paraglidingforum.com.

#2 Bùi Thái Giang

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Posted 09 July 2011 - 01:22 AM

tin buồn: Xavier Murillo RIP
Recovery efforts underway as glider spotted at 4,800m on Huascaran Norte

Posted Image

Xavier having fun at the dunes of Huamey on the coast before his disappearance. Photo: James 'Kiwi' Johnson

UPDATE, 8 July 2011, 11am GMT: West face

The PWCA, which is coordinating the search for Xavier, has confirmed that Xavier’s body was found at 12.23pm Peru time (5.23pm GMT) on 7 July on the west face of Huascaran Norte at 4,700m by the PWCA aerial search ream.

They suggest that the “most likely” scenario is that Xavier was taking photographs when he lost control of his glider and crashed. They add that it looked like Xavier had opened his reserve but he “quickly died from his injuries”.

The full statement reads:

The aerial search organized and led this morning (July 7th) by Mike allowed to find Xavier’s body at 12:23 (local time). Xavier was found in the west face of the Huascaran Norte (6768m) at an altitude of 4,700m.

The most likely scenario is that Xavier was taking some pictures of this impressive mountain when he lost control of his paraglider. It looks like he opened his reserve but he quickly died from his injuries.

Again we want to express our deepest sympathy to the family and to all the people that he inspired during his engaged and exciting life.

A zoomable Google map of the area with markers of the relevant locations in the search for Xavier Murillo. Click on a marker for more information. If you can’t see a map, refresh or try a different browser.

View XCmag: The search for Xavier Murillo in a larger map

UPDATE, 11.45pm GMT: Huascaran Norte, 4,800m, James Johnston reports from Huaraz, Peru

Despite a report yesterday that indicated that Xavier had been seen flying over Huaraz late on the day he disappeared, an aerial search led by Michael Christiansen for the PWCA this morning (Thursday 7 July) has reported locating the glider of Xavier Murillo at around 4,800m on the slopes of Huascaran Norte (6,655m), the second-highest peak in the Cordillera Blanca. Recovery efforts with local guides and search-and-rescue have already begun and Xavier is presumed dead.

X-Andes organiser Peter Chrzanowski elected to depart Huaraz yesterday, leaving all search-and rescue responsibilities to Christiansen, despite having been responsible for inviting and paying for Xavier to participate in the X-Andes reconnaissance. Having been advised that he should stay till Xavier was found, Chrzanowski cited financial and health reasons for his departure.

I would like to extend my own condolences to Xavier’s family, and I will leave the obituaries to those who knew Xav better than me. But I will say that a better travelling companion and more enjoyable human being would be harder to find, and I’m glad that I got to know him well enough to call him a friend.

This was not the news we were hoping for, but the worst of the mystery has ended, and now offers some resolution to those who loved Xavier, and to the hundreds if not thousands of people whose lives Xavier touched through his own extraordinary existence.

James Johnston. 7/7/2011.

UPDATE, 11pm GMT: Huascaran Norte

James Kiwi Johnston has sent us this brief email from Huaraz, Peru:

An aerial search has discovered Xavier’s body high on Huascaran Norte. It may take a couple of days for a team of guides to bring him down, he’s that high up. Kiwi.

At 6,655m Huascaran Norte is the second highest peak in Peru. It is heavily glaciated.

Kiwi Johnston was flying with Xavier on the day Xavier disappeared and has reported here on the search for him since then. We will post further reports from him as soon as we have them

8.50pm GMT: Xavier Murillo RIP

It is with the heaviest of hearts that we report the discovery of Xavier Murillo’s body in Peru.

No details of what caused Xavier’s death have been released as yet.

The PWCA website carries only the following post.

Mike just reported to Laura that they found Xavier.
Unfortunatly all is over and Xavier is dead.

We just contacted the family.
I cannot find the words right now to express the sorrow.

Be assured that we’ll provide more informations as soon as we get it and as soon as we recover enough strenght to share it.

My thoughts are with the friends, the family of Xavier as well as  with all people that helped or contributed to the searches during this  last stressfull days.
Thanks to all of you.

More information later.

Cross Country magazine conveys its greatest condolences to Xavier’s friends and family and thanks everyone who have been involved in the search efforts to locate him.

Xavier: you will be sorely missed by us all. RIP.




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