Mayon Volcano. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
LEGAZPI CITY – The provincial government of Albay mounted a search and rescue operation this Wednesday morning for an injured European mountaineer who went up Mount Mayon alone and without permission from local authorities.
Governor Joey Salceda, head of the Albay Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said he sent two search and rescue teams at 6:30 a.m. to Mt. Mayon to look for a Mark Yuchyugaev, said to be a Russian national, who got lost and broke his leg.
Authorities were however still determining the true nationality of Yuchyyugaev, Salceda said.
Salceda said they were informed past 8 p.m. Tuesday concerning a foreign mountaineer who climbed Mayon on Sunday passing through the Miisi trail in Daraga town.
He said a certain Jerry Bilala, of Daraga, went to the Daraga fire station at around 8 p.m. Wednesday asking assistance to help a certain Yuchyyugaev who went up Mayon Volcano on Sunday.
Bilala told authorities he got the call from Yuchyyugaev at 8:02 p.m. asking for assistance because he broke a leg and was suffering from the cold temperature at the slopes of Mayon Volcano.
The foreigner said he was some 1,700 meters up the volcano. It was still uncertain how the foreigner got to know Bilala.
According to information gathered from Bilala, Yuchyyugaev went alone to climb the 2600-meters high volcano without seeking permit to climb from authorities and without an accredited mountain guide, the PDRRMC said.
The. incident came just 15 days since four European mountaineers and one of their Filipino guides died in the slopes of Mt. Mayon on May 7. They were close to the crater of the volcano when it went on a phreatic explosion, spewed ash and steam, and hitting the climbers with smouldering rocks and hot steam.
The group of mountaineers who died on May 7 also went up Mayon Volcano without giving notice to authorities.
Since then, Salceda has declared Mayon Volcano “a no man’s land” and prohibited any and all climbs.