As soon as we headed to the forest, we have sunk into deep snow. We were stuck so we got the fire going until the help arrived: Drama in Serbian highlands

We were prepared, we knew where we were going, we know the terrain and we had all of the equipment, but it was all in vain

Foto: Tanjug/Rade Prelić

Four friends from Gornji Milanovac, who went to drive quads on snowy Ravna Gora, almost paid with their lives for the reckless driving.

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Rados Despotovic, Petar Milojevic, Zoran Dancic, and Igor Milojevic, headed on Sunday afternoon into the adventure on the mountain, which had 2 meters of snow on it, and they quickly got lost.

After six hours of wondering in a blizzard, the rescuers managed to find them and save them from certain freezing on -10 temperatures. 

Foto: Tanjug/Rade Prelić

According to Rados Despotovic, one of the friends who got lost, all four of them got stuck at one moment during the blizzard, without the possibility to move.

- We were prepared, we knew where we were going, we know the terrain and we had all of the equipment, but it was all in vain. As soon as we headed to the forest, we have sunk into deep snow and we got stuck. We couldn't move our quads and we went on foot. We barely moved through snow which was 1.5 meters tall, perhaps even 2. We couldn't endure it anymore, our legs were wet, we were very cold. We stopped near a village hut, we got the fire going and we waited. I only managed to let my daughter know what was going on and to call for help, and then we were all run out of batteries and phone reach. We waited for several hours until they have reached us. Perpahs it seems like an adventure, but it was really dangerous - said Despotovic.

Branislav Tomovic, one of the members of the rescue crew, said that the action to find the missing people from Gornji Milanovac wasn't easy.

Foto: Shutterstock

- We needed more than three hours of walking through the pathless terrain to reach the place where they were. The problem was that we couldn't reach them on their phones, which ran out of battery, so we couldn't know where they were exactly. It is a vast area and excavator we used can't work that fast. We have found them late into the night, near a mountain house, thanks to the fire which they set up, in order to stay warm - said Tomovic, who rescued them at -10.

THE EXCAVATOR WAS STUCK 

The rescue operation lasted for six hours because the rescuers feared for their own safety due to cold.

- It wasn't easy, strong wind and freezing temperatures made our movement difficult. The machine isn't that strong to pass through the blizzard and the snow - adds Tomovic.

WILDERNESS 

The president of the local community Kostunici, Ivan Damljanovic said that the area where four friends were lost is extremely inaccessible.

- The area of Mokere cave is in complete wilderness, uninhabited and there is almost no signal for phones. Strong snow gusts in these areas of Ravna Gora mountain are over 1.5 meters high, and they go up to 2 meters, so the movement in these areas in winter conditions is more than risky. They were lucky - estimated Damjanovic.

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(Telegraf.co.uk / Informer)