– They were so high in the mountains that they were told. Had they been further down, they would have struggled to find coverage, says Bent Einarsen. He is both an ambulance driver and leader of the local relief corps, and participated in the rescue operation on Thursday. Bent Einarsen drives an ambulance on Senja and is the leader of the Berg Red Cross Auxiliary Corps. Photo: Private At 2 pm in the afternoon, a tour group called two people from the Czech Republic and announced that they had seen a man fall down the mountain on the way up to Grytetippen. They had been in contact with the man from Germany when they went up to the top. Then they must have heard him shout and see that he slipped on the snow under them and ended up off the edge. A large-scale rescue operation was launched. The area the man had fallen into was so impassable and rugged that in the end mountain climbers had to be brought in from the Tromsø alpine rescue group. See photos from the rescue operation here: The new helicopter Sea Queen celebrates one of the climbers in Tromsø alpine rescue group Photo: Simon Ersfjord, Berg Red Cross The deceased is lying down the river, under the snow, after slipping on the snow down from the mountain to the deceased man in his 60s Just before 9 pm, the man in his 60s was located. He lay dead in a cavity under the snow in a steep riverbed and had to be dug up. Simon Ersfjord was among the volunteers in the Red Cross who went up as far as possible on the mountain side, while the Sea Queen helicopter searched from the air. – There was very poor coverage in the exploration area, he says. Must leave the scene of the accident Ambulance driver Bent Einarsen says it often happens that people who are witnesses to or involved in accidents are not allowed to report immediately. – There may be traffic accidents where there is no coverage, so that the person who comes first to the accident site must leave and drive to be notified, he says. In the event of accidents in the mountains, the tour group must leave the injured person and go down to get cover. – There may be long distances they have to move to be notified. This takes a very long time, so those who need help stay in bed unnecessarily long. – What do you think about it being like that? – That is bad. We see from year to year that there is more and more tourism and more traffic. The mountains are also more in use. Many tourists are neither shod nor dressed to go hiking, so the danger of needing help is much greater. The mountains stop the signals Mayor of Senja municipality, Tom-Rune Eliseussen, believes Telenor has a social responsibility to ensure better mobile coverage. Eliseussen points out that Senja will have a large increase in tourist traffic in the future and is therefore dependent on good mobile coverage. Senja mayor Tom-Rune Eliseussen believes Telenor has a responsibility to ensure good mobile coverage where people live and travel. Photo: Linda Pedersen / NRK Bjørn Amundsen is coverage director at Telenor. He says the nature on Senja is very challenging. High mountains stop the signals and make it impossible to provide mobile coverage everywhere. – We are dependent on electricity and communication, so even though perhaps 90 percent of Senja is covered, there will be surface areas we are unable to cover. – But can you not make any moves in the most popular hiking areas? – If Senja municipality and the county are interested in looking at this, we can take it as a collaboration, he says. Coverage director at Telenor, Bjørn Amundsen. Photo: Elisabeth Sandve / NRK Amundsen points out that during the year there will be mobile coverage on Kattfjordeidet on Kvaløya, as a result of a collaboration with Tromsø municipality. During a search operation in 2021, the police struggled to get maps of the area, precisely because the mobile coverage was too poor. NRK has so far not succeeded in getting hold of the coverage director in Telia. Sunny order Senja has already been part of a joint venture with Telenor and private players. In the popular exit area Kaperdalen, a mast was recently set up that provided better mobile phone coverage. – But there is a limit to how much a municipality can spend to expand. We have some settlements where the coverage is far too poor today, when you see the activity in the business community. The business community must not suffer from poor coverage, nor can the inhabitants, says the Senja mayor. He emphasizes that the municipality has a good dialogue with Telenor about possible solutions. – So here we just have to look at what we can achieve to get better speed in the development and better coverage capacity. Ambulance driver and auxiliary corps leader Bent Einarsen at Senja has a clear order: – The operators should expand so that at least along the roads and in the most popular tourist places there is such good coverage that you are notified if something should happen. In the area where a German hiker died on Thursday, there was very poor mobile phone coverage, says Simon Ersfjord in the Red Cross Auxiliary Corps. Here he and two other volunteers are on their way up the mountain. Photo: Linda Pedersen / NRK
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– Just luck that the witnesses were notified, says Red Cross leader – NRK Troms and Finnmark
