On Sunday evening, three elderly hikers — visiting from a completely different region — got lost in the area around St. Michael Hill.
They had left their car at Köves-mező and set out from there to the Julianus Lookout.
By the time they were heading back, dusk had fallen, and due to inattention they followed the Blue Trail in the opposite direction, toward the St. Michael Saddle.
At the saddle, they began to suspect that they were heading the wrong way, but they couldn’t remember the name of the parking area or the correct route.
They spotted the Börzsöny Mountain Rescue Service’s duty phone number on an information board at the site and called for help — fortunately so, because had they continued toward the Hermit Cave, the outcome could have been much worse.
Based on the conversation and detailed questioning, the on-call rescuer identified that they were most likely looking for the Köves-mező parking area.
He informed them of the correct direction.
Since the hikers were in good physical condition, they agreed to attempt the return on their own.
The main difficulty was that they had no flashlight, and their phone battery was running low.
Meanwhile, the duty officer alerted the standby rescue team in case intervention became necessary.
The hikers set off on the return route.
By the time they reached the area around the Julianus Lookout again, it was already quite dark, but they remained in regular phone contact with the mountain rescuer.
Although technically it would have been possible to send them a tracking link, which would have allowed the rescuers to follow their position in real time, this was not used due to the low battery level of their phone.
Instead, the hikers shared small bits of information about the terrain — such as visible features, intersections, power lines, and trail markings — which allowed the duty officer to continuously identify their location and give precise instructions on how to proceed.
The group eventually returned to their starting point tired but uninjured.
No field intervention by the mountain rescuers was ultimately needed.
