As of: February 29, 2024, 5:43 p.m
By: Moritz Bletzinger
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Frustration after a dramatic search that ended up being no search at all.
Two ski touring groups from Germany caused a large-scale operation in Tyrol.
Königsleiten – shaking your head in the Kitzbühel Alps.
Two German holiday groups caused quite a stir at the Neue Bamberger Hütte in Tyrol (Austria).
Huge worry, a big search operation - all for nothing and nothing again.
Mountain rescue and hut landlords are pissed off at the ski tourers from Munich and Bonn.
Large-scale operation because of German ski vacationers in the Kitzbühel Alps - Tyrolean mountain rescue complains
25 women and men from two mountain rescue teams are on duty, as well as a police helicopter with a thermal imaging camera.
The Westendorf mountain rescue service describes on Facebook how complex the search was last Saturday (February 10th) for the missing Germans.
“This operation shows what effects poor or no tour planning can have,” complains the Westendorf mountain rescue service.
Situation briefing by the Westerndorf and Hopfgarten mountain rescue service: Where could the twelve missing Germans be?
© Westendorf Mountain Rescue
The landlord of the Neue Bamberger Hütte sounded the alarm around half past seven in the evening.
The eight-person ski touring group from Bonn still hadn't shown up.
Your luggage, however, did, it arrived on the material cable car in the early afternoon.
Two German ski touring groups missing in Tyrol – host alerts mountain rescue
Plus complete radio silence.
“They didn’t get in touch anymore, I couldn’t reach them by phone several times,” says landlord Martin Aschauer to the Kronen-Zeitung.
He was sure: The group, which consisted mostly of beginner skiers, must have gone crazy.
Misfortune can happen quickly in the mountains.
At the same time, the innkeeper was missing four vacationers from Munich.
Four people had registered to stay overnight, but they never arrived.
The second group also could not be reached by telephone.
So the mountain rescue team went out and combed the winter and summer approach to the hut as well as the climb to the Schneegrubenspitze at the Manzenkaralm.
A large area.
The group of eight from Bonn is said to have last been seen on the mountain at 3:15 p.m.
The people of Munich remained completely untraceable.
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German ski tourers got lost – information for the hut host?
None
It wasn't until shortly after 9 p.m. that the first eight stones fell from the hut owner's heart.
The group from Bonn has arrived – exhausted but uninjured.
In fact, they had climbed too high and had climbed more than twice as many meters as necessary.
And this despite the fact that they were supposedly traveling with a trained ski tour guide.
It is not uncommon for holidaymakers in the Tyrolean Alps to overestimate themselves.
Can happen.
But what they are said to have said to the innkeeper is less comprehensible.
They didn't think it was necessary to inform anyone about their delay, reports Aschauer.
There was no need for all the drama.
And not just because of the radio silence.
The local branch manager of the Westendorf mountain rescue service, Anton Agner, says to Krone: “The Bonn group’s tour planning was amateurish, and they also climbed a slope that is threatened by avalanches.”
Mountain rescue is desperately looking - but the Munich ski touring group is sitting at home in the living room
But the Munich team even went one step further.
After hours, the innkeeper finally reached one of the athletes on the phone.
And then it turned out: the ski tourers had never left home and were sitting in the warm Munich living room.
According to the landlord, they didn't cancel their booking.
If mountaineers put themselves in danger or engage in unnecessary activity, it can be expensive for them.
Some people know this and then annoy the rescuers even more.
A group of German hikers recently actually asked the emergency call: “How much does the rescue cost?”
(moe)