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Alarmed mountain guards from Tyrol and the Oberland spent a long time searching for the buried victims.
© Symbolic photo: Archive
Today, February 19th, marks the 40th anniversary of a terrible avalanche accident that left three people dead.
The memory of the victims lives on.
Benediktbeuern/Bichl – February 19, 1984 was a black Sunday for Benediktbeuern and Bichl.
Eight comrades - mostly very experienced ski mountaineers and some members of the local mountain rescue service and the ski rescue service - went on a ski tour with a companion from Jachenau to the 2,490 meter high Hochgleiersch in the Tyrolean Karwendel 40 years ago.
Three of them never returned home.
They were swept to their deaths by an avalanche.
Tour started in Scharnitz
When news of the tragedy spread in the afternoon, there was great bewilderment and sadness, but no major accusations were made against those involved.
When there was a medium avalanche danger, the group set off from Scharnitz on this demanding ski tour early in the morning and apparently did not realize the extent of the impending danger.
It was not a guided tour, but rather a tour among comrades, where everyone is ultimately responsible for themselves.
Most of the time everything goes well in such ventures, but “sometimes you end up in the wrong place at the wrong time,” as one of the survivors said.
Suddenly a huge slab of snow came loose
The steep southwestern slope of the Hochgleiersch resembles a huge triangle standing on its tip, which further down narrows like an open book to an erosion gully with breaks.
40 years later, Hubert Hirschinger describes the events.
After resting on the summit, he, Roland Fleissner, Bernhard Büchner and the Jachenauer companion drove down more along the edge of the steep summit slope and then waited a little deeper for the others: “We had to watch as Heini Seemüller, Schorsch Exinger and Bernhard Pfohl on another We had driven a track into the slope when suddenly a huge slab of snow came loose and swept the three comrades along and buried them all over the mountain side.
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Comrades were shocked and desperate
Only Benedikt Grünwald remained briefly at the summit and then drove down the broken slope to his waiting comrades.
“Terribly shocked and desperate,” they searched together for the victims.
But they quickly realized that there was no salvation for them.
Alarmed mountain guards from Tyrol and the Oberland searched for a long time for the buried victims.
The last of them was only found many weeks later after the snow melted.
At the foot of the mountain, on the road from Scharnitz through the Gleierschtal to the Mösl-Alm, there is now a marter that commemorates the victims.
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A thoughtful Edward Whymper, survivor of the ill-fated group of first climbers of the Matterhorn, later wrote: “Climb the high Alps if you want, but never forget that courage and strength are nothing without wisdom, and that a moment's negligence is the happiness of a lifetime At the Benediktbeuern mountain rescue service, as head of duty Manuel Guglhör reports, there is a lively culture of remembrance in view of the tragedy on Hochgleiersch: “Every year before Christmas we come together for a memorial shooting.
Before the award ceremony, we dedicate an honorable remembrance to the victims: wives and relatives, friends from back then and also our young people honor the memory of the three men across generations."
(Rainer Bannier)