Young climbers rescued from the icy north face
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There was a special mountain rescue operation on the north face of the Hochgasser near Mittersill (Pinzgau) on Sunday night. Two young Viennese climbers got into mountain difficulties. They wanted to master a great adventure before the lockdown – with mistakes in the route planning, as the rescue workers say.
The two of them entered the combined route “Hauptgully” through the middle of the north face on Saturday morning – a mixture of snow, rock and ice climbing. After seven hours, they could no longer continue about 200 meters below the summit ridge at 2,800 meters above sea level. According to mountain rescuers, the conditions for this type of mountaineering are currently poor because there is still little fresh ice for robust intermediate protection.
“Hardly a chance without the moon”
The technically and physically very demanding night work of his teams is only thanks to the successful moonlight, says Gerfried Walser, local branch manager of the Mittersill mountain rescue service. He and ten men set out for the main ridge of the Hohe Tauern after the Viennese had made their emergency call at 5:00 p.m. with their mobile phone as darkness fell.
Rise of the team from the south
The rescue team drove to the south portal of the Felbertauern tunnel in East Tyrol, because from there the approach to Hochgasser is shorter than at the north portal. The mountain rescuers posted an observation post at this point. The exact location of the climbers on the north face can be determined via mobile phone connections and mutual light signals.
After three hours, the young men’s rescue team arrived, having first crossed the summit. The climbers were very exhausted, so Bergretter. They were pulled up the ridge with the help of a Dyneema rope using a crew hoist. Then the common descent to the south portal of the Felbertauern tunnel began at around 1 a.m.
This is how it looks in the wall with better or. good climbing conditions from:
Error in route planning
The Mittersill mountain rescue chief Walser speaks of the misjudgment of the two Viennese when planning their tour. Such a mixed tour in rock, snow and ice is not recommended on the particularly short November days. The Mittersiller would have one more tactical advice for mountaineers: “When planning the tour, you also have to define a time to turn back. If you can see that you are not making rapid progress to your destination, you should alert as soon as possible and not wait until it is completely dark. ”The mission lasted until 4:00 in the morning.