Komovi, according to many is the most beautiful mountain in Montenegro, with the broken heights from lightnings, sculptured in cracked stone piles and fragile and dangerous rocks, perpetually wrapped in a fog and snow. That is the reason why it is called the Empress Mountain, which three tops dive into the pedestal. They are called Vasojevićki, Kučki and Ljevorečki Kom. Although separated, they make a whole whose beauty cannot be described. Those who tried to describe it, mainly used the same sentence: Kom must be seen and experienced. But it should be bear in mind that the mountain continues to give and take. Its temper is very specious. Unfortunately, many times fatal. Nature is unpredictable and very few can boast that they beat its cruel and terrible side, the one that carries in front which vanishes all. The last thing that man can play with is nature’s dark side.
FATAL CURIOSITY
After Durmitor, Kom is the highest Montenegrin mountain (2488 m). The pit Velja is one of the best pastures in the area, in which Momčilo Adzić (1946) rises from an early age. That 29th of July 2001 with his sons Tihomir (1980) and Miloš (1984) and his niece Alexandra (1982), went out to his favorite habitat from which the three Kom heights could have been seen. In 1969 with his neighbor and friend Slavko Radević, he climbed to Vasojevićki Kom (the highest height). Perhaps taken by the memories, along with three other young men, that quiet and serene morning he had come to the bay below the heights, places where there were still snow and ice, a place where because of the lightening on the heights always glaciers hang. They were willing to observe the environment, the flora and fauna, to see the chamois’ tracks. But the beauty eventually was capable of taking them to impasse. Forever ...
- It was foggy. I was partially familiar with the mountain’s characteristics and I relayed on the fact that the fog will despair somewhere around 2 or 3 PM. We climbed along the cascade (rocky area suitable for climbing). By memory, it seemed to me that this was the path I climbed forty one years ago. Because of the fog, we were able to see only 30-40 meters ahead. Slowly what captured our sight was a mountain. Curiosity. On almost 2000 meters of height, around 10 AM, began the critical part. The pitch was almost 80 degrees. The mountain was pulling us down. It was unlikely o go back. We thought that we would’ve find the way to the top, and from there the way back. We passed a very critical stage under a severe scarp, of nearly 90 degrees. However, we believed it was safer to go forward than backwards. It was late when I realized that we were on the wrong track. At about 40 meters from the top, we were already in a hopeless situation. Dead end. It was almost 11 o’clock. Below us was a deep chasm almost 400-500 meters deep. Abyss. The four of us were standing on a land less than a square meter. Then we realized that aheads was not Vasojevićki Kom, but the so-called Međukom, inaccessible height to which, just for the record, no one has ever climbed ...
Momčilo Adžić voice trembles, as if he once again is with his children and niece Alexandra on the line between life and death.
FEAR ON MILOŠ ADŽIĆ’S FACE
EDGE OF ENDURANCE
In front of the heroes of this story was an enormous vertical rock. Heading towards it without mountaineering equipment, it was almost suicidle. Chance almost did not exist. However, fearing for the lives of the young people, Momčilo Adzić superhuman strength is moving forward. Going ahead to the impossible...
- I was holding myself with the tops of the fingertips. I was glued like paper. A long, long time I was climbing up to the first stable back burner. And stone by stone, I reached the top. Then, hope was born. I survived and I might save the children. It was only then when I saw that I had my mobile phone in the pocketin my pocket. Ericsson. There was between 12 and 13 o’clock. I called the police. They told me they would do the necessary. I was looking for 40-50 meters of rope that could be passed to us from the helicopter. Little by little, the fog went away. A little bit later, somewhere before 1PM, the police informed me that the rescuing team from Kolasin was alerted. The officer from the Ministry of Interior, Ivica Maraš informed me all the necessary measures were taken to ensure a helicopter. I called my brother in law Zoran Lakušić and told him to inform my friends Vidak Radević and Darko Gogić, brave mountaineers who know the soul of the mountain. Unfortunately, he did not succeed to make a contact with them. From Nikšić called me Željko Loncović (instructor of Mountain Rescue Service and a police member for rescuing in inaccessible terrain) and he says that he was waiting to provide a police helicopter and will come with his friend Dragan Lalović, an experienced climber and instructor of Mountain rescue service. I yelled, I called the kids, and I encouraged them to endure, that help was coming. However, the fog was falling down. It usually closes routes even in the most beautiful weather conditions. I was afraid of worse weather conditions. After 14 o'clock, I saw a team from Kolašin. They were climbing towards the route Kučki. This area is relatively accessible. They noticed me. Somewhere after 16 o’clock, the helicopter overfilled the mountain. The pilot was Slavko Ilić ... I find out that climbers from Nikšić also left moving towards us ... But the fog was falling more and more. I was constantly calling for the children and encouraging them...
In those moments, when the drama was just beginning, three young men, with no more strength, all desperate, mentioned their uncle Paul Milosević, an elite alpinist who in the summer 2000 died on the Himalayas. They believed that he would have been their only hope for salvation. They were even thinking about a suicide and eventually dismissed the though as cowardly.
THE VERTICAL HEIGHT WHICH MOMČILO ADŽIĆ DEFEATED
The key moment
Close, but still infinitely far away from Momčilo Adzić, around 17.30, the rescue team came in Kolašin Kučki Kom. Access is impossible... At the same height, around 19.00 o’clock, Željko Loncović and Dragan Lalović from Nikšič, people who conquered the Himalayas showed up. They leave... It is almost 20.00 o’clock. Momčilo Adzić‘s mobile phone is out of batteries. He looses all hope. Desperate, he screams into the abyss. Night falls, the fog suddenly drops. In those moments at the Loncović and Lalović height in a race against time, an unusual decision was made and move towards Adzić like a vertical ascent. A step ahead of death ...
- We climbed vertically, fearing not to miss them. It was hardly visible. If we were looking for some logical ways, we would probably been lost. We climbed without lamps. The visibility was even lower. The biggest danger was that we would not find them because of the fog and the night. Therefore, we decided to take a risk. The weather was a key factor. The helicopter transferred us to the footer in twenty minutes. There were no other rescuing chances. The guys will certainly not survive the night. We did all in the last minute. The Kom’s where in a place where climates were crashing, everything was swinging and there was a lot of suffering because of the rock crumbling. In addition, vertical ascent, we came out on top, seven or eight meters from Momčilo Adzić. It was around 20.30. Immediately, Dragan and I started to build the anchor to set pins in order to attach the rope with which we went down to save the young men. In that time, we were already using flashlights.
- Because of several reasons I am convinced that they would not have survived the night. First, mentally they were at the end of energy. However, they were young people who are were never new tempted like this before. On that place they spent almost nine hours. Any movement could have been tragic. Later, they barely endured the cold night, even though they were sitting comfortably. They said they considered taking something on their own. In order to be more disastrous, I have convinced myself when I saw that none of them was able to come down from the top in a secured and tightened rope. According the situation they were in and the fact that they were not trained mountaineers, before dawn, we could not arrange transportation in the valley. They spend the night as hey only new and could have handled. We tried to relax them a little bit, in order for them to feel secure because we were there. I think we succeeded. Dragan and I were thinking from where to continue the transport the next day. There were no regular roads on the where we were. Where and how? We were also here for the first time. We did not comment the issue in order not to make panic. When we got to the top, they considered they were already safe and rescued. That was what they said. But it was only the first part of the job...
Željko Loncović, who is also an international instructor for rescuing in rough terrain, said that before the sunrise they headed towards the valley and the second part of the transport performed without any risk. He sad: "Safety in the mountains can not be said in a few sentences."
Returning in the down
Finally saved
That morning, 30 July 2001, was the end of the drama played at the heights of Komovi. Saving with the helicopter was impossible. The spacecraft was getting low down the air. The surviving chances of the family Adzić were less than one percent. The temperature during the night was going below zero. To whom they should be thankful for saving their lives, to which they should thank, as they said, the fact that they felt like they were born again. Željko Loncović claims that he and Dragan Lalović were the only link in the entire chain the police team consisted of. Therefore, he didn’t agreed just for his photo to be published. The photo can be published only with my pals, he said. Modesty and this kind of attitude is natural for a man whose profession is saving human lives. Who knows, maybe right now is on another line that he was willing to take, like is sizable for him, facing life and death...Life and death.
After all: "Born again"
By Nebojša Bošković
