Ascension Squad: Munich residents get bogged down in the Karwendel – one wears leggings and shorts
Created: 11/28/2022, 4:55 am
By: Josef Hornsteiner
A blessing in disguise: Shortly before the abyss, the mountaineer comes to a halt and can be rescued.
© Bergwacht Mittenwald
Three people from Munich did pretty much everything wrong on their Karwendel tour at the weekend.
The Mittenwald mountain rescue service saved her life thanks to a helicopter.
Mittenwald
– No crampons, no ice ax, no proper winter clothing and not even headlamps: three young men from Munich got really bogged down with their mountain tour on Saturday – and not just because of the bad equipment.
Their goal was the Western Karwendelspitze, which they were not supposed to reach that day.
Because at the level of the second mast of the Karwendelbahn, one of them slipped on snow and ice.
Karwendelspitze: Mountaineers from Munich get bogged down - and are lucky in misfortune
After 30 meters he stopped short of a 100 meter deep abyss with abrasions and a few bruises, so he was very fortunate in the misfortune.
Another of the trio got stuck on a slab of ice and couldn't move forward or back.
And last but not least, a fourth man, also from Munich, joined the trio, didn't want to go any further and was also taken by helicopter.
When planning their tour on Saturday, the people of Munich did pretty much everything wrong that there is to do wrong.
The equipment was in no way suitable for such a wintry route.
They didn't leave the valley until 10:15 a.m., which is far too late given the short days in winter.
They believed that the Karwendelbahn would run - but it has closed due to maintenance work.
"It would certainly have been dark by now if they had reached the top and had to get down again," says Benni Wollesen, operations manager of the Mittenwald mountain rescue service.
A suicide mission without headlamps.
The four people from Munich have to be brought down into the valley by helicopter.
© Bergwacht Mittenwald
At 11.45 a.m. the alarm went off for Wollesen and his comrades.
Four of them were flown up with ropes, drills and other winter equipment with the Christoph Murnau helicopter.
Since the three of them were close to the mast and thus the ropes of the mountain railway, they first had to be moved to another location.
The three were fetched with rope railings and winched safely into the helicopter.
The fourth started even later in the valley, regardless of the group, and had the same goal.
However, when he saw the difficulties that his three predecessors had to deal with, he did not dare to go any further.
Weather development facilitates helicopter rescue
Mountain rescue service leader Heinz Pfeffer repeats like a mantra that winter is currently prevailing on the Karwendel.
"Only very experienced alpinists who start on time and have the right equipment should do such a tour at the moment." The three people from Munich were inexperienced, one even only wore leggings with shorts over them.
Pfeffer asks you to think carefully about how far up you are going.
Because when the snow comes, it will be difficult.
The fact that the men could be rescued quickly and were in the valley by 4 p.m. was only thanks to the good weather.
Because when the helicopter brought the last two mountain rescue comrades back to Mittenwald, fog came up - and that would have made the rescue much more difficult.
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Two holidaymakers will not forget their tour to the Western Karwendelspitze in a hurry. In June 2019, it was suddenly the end of the road for them in rocky and exposed terrain.
