As of: March 26, 2024, 5:58 p.m
By: Christian Fellner
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The higher, the more wintry the conditions are - like here in Reintal, where the mountain rescue service flew the four young men out of Berlin on Monday.
© Bergwacht GAP.
The four young men from the Berlin area wanted to climb the Zugspitze.
They never got there.
The mountain rescue service had to rescue them - and urgently warns against mountain tours.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen – It’s officially spring.
No question.
Calendar and meteorological.
And the time will be changed next Easter weekend.
But Toni Gehringer from the Garmisch-Partenkirchen mountain rescue service makes one thing clear: “It’s still far from summer in the mountains, there’s still a lot of snow.”
Nevertheless, the first daring – or rather foolish – people are already on their way to climb the peaks on the edge of the Alps.
In the past few days, the mountain rescue service has been alerted twice to rescue hikers from the snow on the mountain.
“You really have to issue a warning, normal mountain tours are simply not possible at the moment,” says Gehringer emphatically.
Hikers from the Berlin area: On the road for three days
The alarm from the control center came late on Monday afternoon.
The info: Four mountaineers are stuck in the snow in Reintal.
Two mountain rescue men and Christoph Murnau's helicopter crew immediately set off to investigate the situation.
In fact, the emergency services came across four young men between the ages of 17 and 18 who were unable to make any progress at an altitude of more than 1,500 meters on the way towards Knorrhütte.
“The four were transported uninjured to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in two flights,” says Gehringer.
The story behind the operation sounds bizarre.
The hikers from the Berlin area came by train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen to start their trip to the Zugspitze.
According to their own statements, at the time of the emergency call they had already been traveling for three days to climb the highest mountain in Germany.
“They last spent the night in the winter room of the Reintalangerhütte.” The next stage was their last.
“It gets steep back there, it’s shady, and the snow is coming.” And that’s not exactly a little, assures the head of the rescue team’s office.
“Our mountain rescue men were recently out there on skis.”
Mountain rescue service: Don't try desperately to reach your destination
In the end everything went well.
Only the young men will now be confronted with the costs of the rescue operation.
“Unfortunately it's always the same thing, people underestimate the fact that there is still a lot of snow in spring, especially at higher altitudes.” The mountain rescue service has a tip for hikers who actually get stuck in the snow.
“If you can’t get any further, it’s a good idea to turn around and go back along the path up,” advises Gehringer.
Don't try so hard to achieve your goal.