The ski mountaineer may have fallen during the ascent and slipped over rocky and steep terrain.
The alpinist had bivouacked near Fusch on Glocknerstrasse for the past few days. As a police spokeswoman said, he phoned his father on the afternoon of April 30 and told him that he was planning to climb the Hohen Tenn (3,368 meters above sea level).
A lot of snow
When his father didn’t hear from him on Thursday, he alerted the emergency services. A search operation was launched with the support of two police helicopters. The ski mountaineer was considered experienced and was well equipped. However, there is still a lot of snow in the Salzburg mountains at the moment. The danger of avalanches should still not be underestimated, as an avalanche accident on Schareck on yesterday’s holiday showed.
Mountain rescuers from Fusch and the Alpine police had been looking for the 29-year-old since the morning hours. According to mountain rescue, the ski mountaineer set off via the Hirzbachtal on Tuesday. He had also bivouacked there and wanted to climb the Hohen Tenn via the northern flank.
Traces of ascent discovered
“On Thursday morning we discovered signs of his ascent on the northern flank. We searched the entire area up to the Schmalzgrubenkar and the east side up to the Walcherkees,” said the local branch manager of the Fusch mountain rescue service, Paul Hasenauer. “In the afternoon we discovered his sleeping bag at around 2,500 meters in the Hirzbachtal.”
Image: Mountain rescue
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Image: Mountain rescue
There was initially no trace of the man from Upper Bavaria. After a change in the weather with snowfall was imminent on the night from Thursday to Friday, the police helicopter team wanted to continue searching for the missing person until late in the evening. The weather and visibility had improved. At around 7 p.m., the emergency services finally discovered the dead alpinist from the helicopter. He was rescued by the helicopter team before nightfall.
In addition to the Fusch mountain rescuers, the Alpine police and the two police helicopter teams, the Red Cross and the Pinzgau disaster officer were also on duty.