Heavy thunderstorms with heavy rain and lightning: mountain rescue service has to save climbers
Created: 07/03/2022 04:52
By: Katarina Amtmann
The mountain rescuers were on duty on Friday night on the Untersberg.
© BRK BGL
Two men got caught in a storm while climbing on the Untersberg.
She had orientation problems and made an emergency call.
Bischofswiesener Forst - During the night from Thursday to Friday (July 1st), emergency services rescued two uninjured local climbers from the lower first part of the "The Neverending Story" route on the Gurrwand on the west side of the Untersberg in the Berchtesgaden Alps.
Bischofswiesener Forst: Storms over Bavaria bring climbers in need
The two men had made an emergency call to the Traunstein control center shortly after 9 p.m. because they had been caught in the heavy thunderstorm with heavy rain and lightning.
Abseiling to the base of the wall above the fourth pitch, they couldn't find the right abseil point in the dark.
Equipped only with a headlamp, they were no longer really able to act, reports the Bavarian Red Cross (BRK).
The duo - two men aged 31 and 32 - had boarded the long, three-section route around 1 p.m.
In the early evening, at the upper end of the second section, just before the emergency exit, they decided that they would rappel down to the entrance because of the threatening storm.
The mountain rescue rescued a duo on the Untersberg.
© BRK BGL
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Gurrwand am Untersberg: Climbers get into trouble in storms with lightning and heavy rain
They only had a headlamp with them and the weather made it very dark.
Therefore, in addition to the thunderstorm, orientation was a problem, according to the BRK.
"The original plan that they would abseil down to the ascent themselves and be picked up by the mountain rescue service with lamps failed because they could not find the abseiling point at the top of the first large wall block."
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The alerted rescuers initially had to wait more than an hour until the lightning and rain subsided.
Then they "explored the best ascent with an advance squad and finally climbed, among other things, via the Almsteig (Knieschnackler) and the lower Quersteig to the foot of the wall, where they were able to make visual contact with the duo".
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Mountain rescue service rescues two climbers on the Untersberg – Heli on duty
However, they could not climb through the rain-soaked wall without taking an acceptable risk.
According to the BRK, however, there was no hurry, “because the climbers were uninjured and had a permanent place to stand on a tree.” It also says: “From the parking lot opposite to the sleeping witch, other mountain rescuers, together with the Bischofswiesen volunteer fire brigade, built a high-performance radiator with a power unit up so that they could illuminate the entire wall.
Despite the extra light and the attempts of the mountain rescuers at the foot of the wall to guide those in mountain distress, the duo could not find the tree with the abseiling point further south-east.”
Finally, the police helicopter Edelweiß 4, which is capable of flying at night, was called in to fly the climbers to the Eisenrichter.
18 mountain rescuers only had a short night and were on duty until 2.15 a.m., the report concludes.
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