Czech trail runner Petr Novotny did not intend to work in search and rescue. He came to Taiwan as an exchange student, but fell in love with the mountains. A decade ago, he joined a search effort for a missing hiker and realized he had a knack for finding people.
Hiking is popular in Taiwan’s rugged mountains, and over 4,000 people have gone missing in the last five years. Most are eventually rescued, but nearly 300 have died.
In 2022, Novotny discovered the body of a missing technology executive whose family had offered a hefty reward. The subsequent media attention led to more requests for help. Often, families hire him knowing that their loved one won’t be found alive. Novotny runs a YouTube account, Beast Runners, which now has hundreds of thousands of followers.
You can watch an interesting CNN profile of Novotny on YouTube below:
