Experience: I hunt for missing hikers in remote mountains

Since I started doing search and rescue five years ago, I have found seven survivors. Sadly, the number I find dead is higher In 2012, I was a student and had arrived in Taiwan from the Czech Republic. I soon discovered something that interested me far more than my studies: the mountains of Taiwan. I would leave the campus to explore untouched trails near Taipei. I was obsessed with old maps, often looking for routes that had vanished from modern ones, and hiking paths that no one had taken for decades. I stayed in Taiwan because of my love for the mountains – there are more than 250 peaks that exceed 3,000 metres. Among the local hiking community, I became known for my speed and knowledge of remote regions. In October 2021, after a typhoon, I heard about a man who had gone missing. I decided to look for him. I hiked for 13 hours, but had no luck. When the man had been missing for more than a week, I received a message from his brother. He had heard about me and asked if I would carry out a search. The fire department was also looking for him. Over the next three days, I covered 67km with a 6,800-metre elevation gain. I moved back and forth across the peaks, searching for any sign