Sad summary of the Easter holidays: three people die in the mountains - what else happened

Created: 04/18/2022, 21:37

By: Leyla Yildiz

The Easter weekend shows a sad record of accidents in the mountains.

There were occasional traffic jams on the roads and passengers took off on vacation from Munich Airport.

(Icon images/collage) © Rolf Poss/snapshot/imagebroker/Imago

The Easter holidays show a grim balance: three people died in mountain accidents, several people had to be rescued.

An overview.

Munich - The Easter days are now a thing of the past, they were characterized by sun and spring-like temperatures.

But when it comes to mountain accidents, the balance sheet is grim.

Since Thursday (April 14) three people have died in the Bavarian mountains.

According to the police, the hikers slipped in all cases on old snow.

Even before Easter, the police and mountain rescue service had warned of wintry conditions and dangerous old snow at higher northern altitudes and urged people to have good equipment.

On Sunday (April 17), officials from the Alpine Task Force found a dead couple at the foot of the Zugspitze. The 55-year-old woman and her husband, who was five years older, were out and about in alpine areas in sneakers.

They lost their footing on a completely snow-covered north-facing section of the trail.

The shoes of the two and the rest of the equipment were completely inadequate for such an undertaking, the police explained.

Easter holidays: Experienced hiker dies in the Karwendel - he slips on snow

A 27-year-old died in the Karwendel on Thursday.

The experienced hiker had set off alone in the direction of the western Karwendelspitze and also slipped on snow-covered ground, as the officials reported.

With the three deaths, a sad trend of recent months continues.

This year alone there have already been 19 fatal accidents in the area from Berchtesgaden to the Zugspitze.

Last year, the officials at the police headquarters in Oberbayern Süd counted 55 mountain deaths in this area - press spokesman Stefan Sonntag already spoke of a "sad historical record".

In previous years, there had been an average of 30 to 40 deaths throughout the year.

Mountain rescuers rescue injured people over Easter: woman falls 30 meters down a slope

Mountain rescuers also had to rescue injured people over Easter.

In the Berchtesgaden Alps on Friday, a 56-year-old hunter slipped on the rain-soaked path and fell about 30 meters down a slope.

Also in Berchtesgadener Land, an eight-year-old girl left the road with a Kettcar and fell 50 meters down an embankment.

Both were seriously injured.

But accidents did not only occur in the mountains - also on the water: in Kressbronn on Lake Constance (Bodenseekreis), three people got into distress on Saturday and had to be rescued;

her sailboat had capsized.

The crew of the boat was unharmed apart from mild hypothermia.

Traffic on Easter weekend: comparatively little traffic on the roads

There was comparatively little going on on the streets: the ADAC spoke of "Easter peace".

It was not until early Monday afternoon that there was sluggish traffic and traffic jams on some motorways in Bavaria.

According to a police spokesman, there were no more day-trippers in the mountains than usual on sunny days.

Many moved further south.

From Friday to Monday, Munich Airport counted around 3,200 take-offs and landings with around 350,000 passengers.

That was “very, very much more” than last year, said airport spokesman Robert Wilhelm.

There were about four times more flights than in 2021.

One of the most popular destinations was Mallorca.

Easter holidays: Holidaymakers start south from Munich Airport

In addition, holidaymakers wanted to go to Spain, Italy and Greece.

Egypt is also very popular again.

Nevertheless, the number of flights did not reach the level before Corona: The number of flights was around 75 percent compared to 2019, said Wilhelm.

The passengers were well prepared.

There were no problems with test certificates and entry forms.

Even staff failures did not impede travel.