Avalanche rescue: Interior Minister Herrmann presents new options at Sudelfeld

Created: 12/29/2021, 7:38 PM

By: Alexandra Korimorth

For more safety on the mountain: Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (left) and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Klaus Stöttner.

© Ralf Poeplau

The Board of Trustees for Alpine Safety wants to counteract potential false assessments of the avalanche danger.

It presented measures at Sudelfeld.

Bayrischzell - The board of trustees in the police home in the Sudelfeld area presented the new or updated tools for avalanche rescue in an impressive and up-close manner: leaflet, emergency app, helicopter detectors and avalanche search dog.

The merger was formed ten years ago and consists of a total of 17 associations, educational institutions and experts.

The Free State supports the work with up to 100,000 euros annually, and so Bavaria's Interior and Sports Minister Joachim Herrmann came to the Grafenherberge on Wednesday.

SOS-EU-App: This year 212 emergency calls made about it

The minister warned - with all friends about the opening of the ski areas - to be careful. “The winter sports break has begun, but it is important to be aware of the risk, to keep an eye on the danger and to be sensible.” Less experienced skiers, ski tourers and snowshoe hikers would often underestimate the danger of avalanches. Fortunately, due to the weather and corona, there were no avalanche deaths in the Bavarian mountains in 2021, nor in the 2019/20 season. “A positive result,” said Herrmann, but there were definitely avalanches.

For example at the Wilden Fräulein in the nearby Spitzingsee area.

There was a big effort there last season because observers believed they had made out ski tracks in the area of ​​the avalanche.

However, the all-clear was given relatively quickly and the search for buried subjects stopped.

Rescue with a dog: Thea with her dog handler during a trial.

© Ralf Poeplau

According to Herrmann, the SOS-EU-Alp-App does a good job in case of avalanches. A total of 212 emergency calls were made via this emergency app this year (2020: 197). The “digital guardian angel” was downloaded 300,000 times. The new, extended version was presented at Sudelfeld: If an emergency call is made from the app, it will be sent directly to all 26 rescue control centers in Bavaria from January onwards and will also transmit the location of the accident victim. "The aim is that an emergency call for the entire Alpine region is possible with the one app," explained Klaus Stöttner, Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Member of the State Parliament. In addition, the app should also be able to transfer personalized data such as health insurance numbers in the future.

Herrmann presented another novelty in avalanche rescue for the Bavarian police helicopters.

There are special detectors, weighing around 70 kilograms, that are hung under the helicopter and that can search an area of ​​one square kilometer within six minutes.

They detect the signal from SAR reflectors, which are built into around 25 percent of mountain sports items, but can also be purchased separately.

Two of these detectors were purchased and a total of 20 surgeons trained.

Eight new police helicopters from 2023

How fast rescue works, demonstrated the police in the helicopter together with the mountain rescue on the ground.

Here it was the avalanche dog Thea and her dog handler who located a jacket of a supposedly buried victim, dug it up and was woken up in the helicopter with it.

Most recently, the Board of Trustees for Alpine Safety presented the new leaflet “Attention Avalanches!”.

It is also available at www.alpinesicherheit.bayern and is to be supplemented by a summer version for mountain sports enthusiasts.

Finally, Herrmann announced that eight new police helicopters (Airbus H145) will be delivered at the beginning of 2023, which will be able to transport twice as many rescue workers or people to be rescued as before.

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