Couple drinks their own urine to survive: hiker missing in the forest for 6 days

Pordenone (Italian) – Davide Cesaroni (41) and his wife Chiara Pesaresi (38) fought for survival in the Dolomites for six days. Without food, without protective equipment – just the couple against the wilderness. Now the hikers report how they managed it – and what price they had to pay for their rescue.

A week ago, on July 1st, the couple parked their car at the refuge near Pordenone and set off on a circular hike. Davide and Chiara wanted to go to the Padua hut, replenish their supplies there and then walk back. But there were no more signs of life from the couple for days. When Davide’s mother couldn’t reach her son, she raised the alarm. The Italian mountain rescue team started a search operation with helpers from the fire department Missing to find.

Igloo made of pine branches

The couple told the newspaper “il Resto del Carlino” that they were already on their way back from the Padua hut. At first the signs on the hiking trails were easy to see. But then they got lost Wanderer on the Marini path – in the middle of a dense pine forest. The Sentiero Alpinistico Arturo Marini is a demanding mountaineering path. It leads through extremely remote and rocky terrain. It is repeatedly interrupted by rock falls.

“On one side an impassable ravine opened up,” they reported. The lost hikers assessed their chances of finding the right path without food as poor. The couple decided to save their energy and spend the night in the forest.

The following five days were torture. “We built a shelter out of two densely leafy pine trees: sticks were placed all around, which protected the shelter like an igloo against moisture, wind and cold.” On their second day in the forest, the couple found a stream that saved their lives. “Until then we had drunk our own urine so as not to die of thirst,” Davide told “il Resto del Carlino”. The hikers fed on berries they found in the forest.

Rotor noise over the forest

Then on Tuesday around 5:30 a.m. salvation came: a helicopter dropped off a rescue team on the Marini path. Already a day before hers rescue the couple had heard the helicopter. But they were not discovered under trees, reported the Mountain rescue of Veneto.

“However, I had observed that the helicopter landed in a ravine not far away, where we would have been much more visible. So I decided to rush there the next day at the first sound of the rotors,” said Davide. The plan worked. “When the rescuers saw me, they asked if I was Davide from Ancona. We were safe.”