As of: February 19, 2024, 9:00 a.m
By: Josef Hornsteiner
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Popular with alpinists: the route over the west ridge to the Schüsselkarspitze.
© private
The anger among the Tyrolean mountain rescuers was huge.
At least back then, in 1990. Back then, someone had dismantled their painstakingly installed safety device on the west ridge of the Schüsselkarspitze.
Now we know who it was.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen/Leutasch – It hangs behind closed doors and is actually not accessible.
A secret, guarded like the apple of an eye.
Now it came to light – by chance.
A photo showing a group of young men in the mountains.
The headline: “The team after dismantling the Tyrolean Ferrata on Schüsselkar-Westgrat on October 14, 1990”.
Kurt Nairz and his colleagues puzzled for a long time.
There were plenty of guesses.
But the comrades from the Leutasch mountain rescue never had any proof in their hands.
For over 34 years, the case did not let the former local branch manager go.
He kept asking himself: Who dismantled the safety device, installed by his mountain rescuers, on the west ridge of the Schüsselkarspitze (2,551 meters) in a night and fog operation in October 1990?
For him and his comrades as builders, this was sheer vandalism.
The anger is correspondingly enormous.
Even though it's pretty much gone after three decades, the 75-year-old still shakes his head today.
It must have been the Bavarian neighbors; word quickly spread in neighboring Tyrol.
Now, 34 years later, the proof has been provided with the photo.
Why did Bavaria dismantle the Ferrata?
The Tagblatt is looking for clues.
Schüsselkarspitze is experiencing a climbing boom
The curious story begins in 1988. At that time, Schüsselkarspitze, which lies exactly between Germany and Austria, was experiencing a real climbing boom.
The peak in the eastern part of the Wetterstein Mountains was one of the most famous Kraxelberge in the Northern Limestone Alps.
The many routes on the south face in particular attracted alpinists almost magically.
The disadvantage of every hotspot in the mountains: the number of missions, especially for the Leutasch mountain rescuers, increased rapidly.
In order to be able to handle it better and, above all, more safely, Nairz and his comrades installed a safety device with wire ropes over the Wangscharte and the west ridge between 1988 and 1989.
Many hours of work and a lot of money were invested.
“The safety of the rescue team is the top priority, especially during operations at night,” emphasizes Nairz.
Especially during nighttime operations and sudden changes in the weather, “difficult situations” often arose before the safety system was built.
“And it was really all about safety,” asserts the Tyrol mountain rescue director, who served for many years until 2015.
But the Bavarian authorities, institutions and mountaineering associations saw things differently at the time.
Even the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior is getting involved
As early as August 22, 1988, the head of the Garmisch-Partenkirchen mountain rescue service at the time informed the lower nature conservation authority in the district office about the case by telephone.
Many people didn't like the fact that the Leutasch mountain rescue service was building a via ferrata in the area of Schüsselkarspitze coming from Austria on German territory in the middle of the Schachen and Reintal nature reserve.
“The government of Upper Bavaria became involved on the same day,” press spokesman Stephan Scharf told the Tagblatt.
The first complaints were received almost at the same time - including from the local section of the German Alpine Club.
In 1988, it didn't take the district office long to find out "that the via ferrata had been built without the necessary exemption from nature conservation law and without private law approval from the landowner, the Bavarian State Forests."
The authority also stated that the Ferrata was installed “not (only) for mountain rescue purposes, but also in the interest of Leutasch tourism”.
This is what documents from that time reveal.
On September 22, 1989, the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior even got involved because the matter touched the state border.
Suddenly appeared: the photo of the group that dismantled the via ferrata in 1990.
© private
An official squabble began.
Nairz, as the local branch manager at the time, could not understand why the Bavarian authorities perceived the safety facility as a tourist via ferrata.
“The entrance was not secured with wires at all, but you had to climb the first section with a rope,” says Nairz.
“So that the west ridge is not used as a tourist via ferrata.”
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On July 15, 1989, the Leutasch mountain rescue service organized an on-site appointment.
Representatives of the German and Austrian Alpine Association, the Leutasch mountain rescue service, the Garmisch-Partenkirchen mountain rescue service and representatives of the district office took part.
The result: “The Leutasch mountain rescue service is removing the via ferrata again,” is the statement from the authority.
“For rescue purposes, some climbing aids and rappelling hooks can be left in place.
The German Alpine Club is providing 80 adhesive hooks for this purpose.”
However, the Leutascher did not dismantle it.
When the via ferrata still wound its way over the ridge unchanged over a year later, Bavarian alpinists took their own initiative - and quickly dismantled it themselves on the Bavarian side on October 14, 1990.
“It was simply too dangerous as a ferrata,” remembers Andreas Dahlmeier, current head of the Garmisch-Partenkirchen mountain rescue service.
He was part of that group when he was young.
A loosely knitted bunch of mountaineers and climbers from Werdenfelser Land.
In a show of strength, they removed wire ropes and iron within a few hours.
Dahlmeier is surprised that the “memory” photo from back then has now appeared: it is well locked in a hut in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen mountains.
For him, the matter is still clear: an order from the authorities was implemented, albeit on his own initiative.
Fortunately, today, 34 years later, the grass has grown over the matter.
“I really don’t want to reheat old camels,” asserts Dahlmeier.
Neither does Nairz.
Cross-border cooperation has not been damaged.
Dahlmeier describes it as “very good”.