"Krone" commentary

On bikes in the snow: the height of unreasonableness!

While the eleven students, two teachers and five accompanying adults had to be rescued by helicopter on Thursday, their bikes were brought down from the mountain by mountain rescuers on Saturday.(Bild: ZOOM Tirol)

The group of German schoolchildren who were stranded with their teachers and chaperones in the Tyrolean mountains, some of which are still wintry, instead of in the seaside paradise of Jesolo, are causing a shake of the head. The planned crossing of the Alps by bike went wrong. "The tour was the height of unreasonableness," writes "Krone" mountain expert Peter Freiberger in his commentary.

Some row across the Atlantic in a rubber dinghy, others cycle across the Alps to Jesolo. In the case of the latter, the Bavarian group of schoolchildren, it was, as is well known, only an attempt.

The brave teachers obviously didn't pay attention in the preparatory course "How to plan a mountain tour" - or skipped it. The fact that there is still snow at high altitudes this year is something the sparrows are whistling from the rooftops.

As it was a charity tour sponsored by the Bavarian cabaret artist Harry G, he could have made one of his videos about the disaster. It would certainly be entertaining to present the "foresight" of the teachers in a humorous way.

But joking aside: the tour was the height of unreasonableness. Even Hannibal planned his crossing of the Alps better more than 2500 years ago.