A hunt in taiga forest turned into a quest for survival for two Russian hunters after one was badly injured in a snowmobile accident. To get help for the man, his friend skied for 10 hours to reach the nearest village.

After setting out to hunt in a remote forest in the Perm region of Central Russia, the two hunters eventually found themselves struggling for their own lives. One of the men crashed his snowmobile, sustaining serious injuries to his head and legs, leaving him unable to move.

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With no mobile-phone signal and no provisions, the other man had no choice but to travel through the taiga at night to seek help for his friend. After carrying the injured party inside an abandoned house for shelter, the hunter set off on a dangerous journey through thick forest in darkness. It took him 10 hours to reach the village of Lel on skis.

He raised the alarm around midday but the quest to save his friend’s life didn’t end there. A rescue team began searching for the injured hunter by helicopter without knowing his exact location.

It took more than three hours for rescuers to fly to the site, and locating the cabin proved to be difficult as the sun began to set. Directions received from local hunters helped the team to find the location, but it was impossible to land due to the thick forest.

Rescuers had to negotiate deep snow in order to reach the injured man, and it took nearly an hour to carry him back to the helicopter. His head injury and freeze burns to his legs were treated in transit to the regional capital. “The pilots had to fly the helicopter almost blindly, only relying on instrument readings,” the region’s Health Ministry said.

The hunter’s injuries are no longer life-threatening, and medics have described his condition as stable.