Life-threatening lift ride: couple illegally board the Blombergbahn

Created: 01/24/2022, 14:31

By: Daniel Wegscheider

The two people who illegally gained access to the Blombergbahn are now facing criminal charges © Blombergbahn

Bad Tölz/Wackersberg – Hannes Zintel has never experienced anything like this in his 20 years as manager of the Blombergbahn: Two hikers jump into the closed lift during the maintenance.

Last Wednesday (January 19), two people illegally jumped over the barrier at the Blomberg mountain station and climbed into the chairlift during ongoing maintenance work.

By doing so, they put their lives in great danger.

As is well known, the Blombergbahn is not in operation during the week in winter, it only runs on weekends.

Therefore, Hannes Zintel was quite astonished when the mountain rescue control center alerted him on Wednesday afternoon at 3:31 p.m. that "someone was sitting in the lift," reports the owner of the Blombergbahn.

"I couldn't understand it at first." At the time, control runs were being carried out on the cable car to secure the rope.

Surveillance camera films couple jumping over the fence and into the Blombergbahn lift

However, the surveillance camera at the mountain station clearly shows how, at 3:02 p.m., a woman first jumps over the fence there and swings into the incoming double chair. A few seconds later, her male companion follows and does the same for her. According to the police, the couple is a 58-year-old from Lithuania; the 24-year-old man lives in Bad Heilbrunn. Zintel describes how dangerous the already precarious situation is: They were not sitting properly and securely in the chair, but “only on the folded chair”. The woman even "only on the bare metal rod," he emphasizes.

Due to their "insufficient equipment, the two hikers were slightly hypothermic when they arrived at the summit," reports Police Chief Inspector Lars Werner.

Then they got on the chairlift.

Both ignored the warning signs "at the deserted and locked mountain station".

Hikers chilled back from Blomberg im Tal

It was to get even worse for the two hikers who had boarded the lift at Blomberg.

In the course of the maintenance work, the chairlift only runs for a short time.

Means: "It is driven 30 meters, then the system is stopped again for ten to 15 minutes," explains Blomberg operator Hannes Zintel.

"The lift is only partially in operation."

The 58-year-old woman and the 24-year-old man felt it too.

"When the train stopped after a short time, the vacationer from Lithuania waited another half hour and then made an emergency call with her mobile phone," reports Lars Werner from the Bad Tölz police station.

The lift operator was then informed via the control center, who then immediately switched the chairlift back on "and brought the two already slightly hypothermic people down into the valley."

Zintel also emphasizes how life-threatening the situation was.

"They were lucky that they had mobile phone reception at their position." The hiking trail is also far away from there.

Any cries for help would have gone unheard.

The lift would not have started operating again until the next day.

Blombergbahn operator reports trespassing

After returning to the valley, both were examined by the rescue service, but showed no particular abnormalities.

Meanwhile, both police and a government safety officer for cable car operations have assured Zintel that he has fulfilled all his safety compliance obligations.

The lift operator has already filed a complaint for trespassing.