Several missions

Tour in a storm: night-time search for alpinists

Grossglockner(Bild: Hannes Wallner)

Emergency services from Salzburg and East Tyrol spent hours searching for three missing ski tourers. They had undertaken a tour in bad weather. The Czechs were rescued from freezing to death. They made an emergency call in Mölltal. 

Meteorologists reported snow and rain for this weekend in East Tyrol. Several alpinists nevertheless decided to go on a tour on Friday. Two Czechs (53, 17) undertook a ski tour on the Grossglockner on Friday. They obviously underestimated the difficulty and length of the tour and lost their bearings on the descent from the Grossglockner via the Kleinglockner due to bad weather and fog. They no longer dared to continue and made an emergency call at around 10 pm. Two mountain guides climbed up to the Adlersruhe and on towards the train station/Meletzkigrat and were able to find the two Czechs in the Meletzkigrat area at around 1.40 am.

"The two Czechs were hypothermic and already had visible frostbite on their faces and hands," say the mountain rescuers who brought the men to the Adlersruhe on Saturday evening. 

Survived the night at over 3000 meters
There was a similar case in East Tyrol: two German men (25, 24) and a woman (25) started a tour on the Großvenediger. On the descent, however, they strayed from the route and ended up below the Prager Hütte. Despite the bad weather, they then climbed up towards the Venedigerscharte.

After the three alpinists had not arrived at the starting hut as planned at around 7 p.m., a search was initiated. Mountain rescuers from Tyrol and Salzburg searched for them all night. They were not found unharmed until around 8 a.m. on Saturday. The Germans had set up an emergency bivouac.