Kum someone is as alone as someone who is injured and waiting for rescue in the mountains. This does not always succeed – but the rescuers from the mountain rescue service do their utmost and go up when others cannot come down from the mountain. “Every mountain rescuer has a story with him that he cannot forget,” says Thomas Käsbohrer. The journalist and historian visited mountain rescuers in their homeland between May and July 2021 and asked them about the most important commitments in their lives.
WORLD: Which story touched you the most?
Thomas Käsbohrer: There are a few that touched me: The story of a 25-year-old mountain rescuer who, on her very first mission after her training, can only rescue a friend from the avalanche dead. Or a missing skier who gets lost in the drifting snow on the Zugspitzplatt, a comparatively small, manageable ski area, and survives two days against all probability until he is found. A mountain rescuer just doesn’t give up on the search.
WORLD: Have you ever been in a dangerous situation in the mountains?
Käsbohrer: I grew up in Bavaria, but as a travel writer I’ve spent more time at sea than in the mountains. I’ve had a number of uncomfortable situations at sea, but not in the mountains, although on my travels I am often alone in the rough terrain.
WORLD: No sailor without a life jacket – what is essential for mountain hikers? A mountain rescuer who had an accident himself and lost his backpack in a fall only survived because he had his cell phone close to his body and he was seriously injured and could call for help. Is that really the most important tip?
Käsbohrer: At least for mountain hikers who are on their own or in poor conditions. However, you should by no means rely on your mobile phone, because network coverage is not always guaranteed in the mountains. And cold, constant network searches along national borders empty the battery faster.
It is much more important to inform relatives or friends before each tour where you are going, when you want to be back and whether you have changed the route on the way. As a frequent soloist, I now consistently do this, which is a quintessence from my conversations with the mountain rescuers.
WORLD: Don’t you recommend digital maps, GPS or new technical gadgets?
Käsbohrer: We are undoubtedly better equipped than any generation before us. But the most common cause of accidents is and remains the human being and not the material. 99 percent of all accidents in the mountains are the result of wrong decisions. Or because I misunderstand a situation or overestimate my abilities. So apparently simple decisions, whether to go left or right in impassable terrain, to cross a snowfield or when it is better to turn around, are the most common mistakes that endanger mountain hikers.
WORLD: But when it comes to the route, isn’t it easy to prepare using digital maps?
Käsbohrer: You’d think the reality is different. In my book I describe 24 accidents and five of them only happened because the mountain hikers misinterpreted the digital map material, drew the wrong conclusions from it or suddenly took a different path. “Errors caused by digital media” often begin within your own four walls.
If you prepare for a tour at home on your PC, you should always take the time of year into account. Is the ski tour in the Karwendel region really as easy as the YouTube video, shot under the best conditions, suggests?
Is the tour described on the Internet just as easy to go in the beginning of October as it is in July? Even on harmless autumn hikes, people are surprised by early darkness, cold in the evening and icy paths on north-facing slopes, because they forget that the days are shorter in October.
WORLD: In the past, when there was no mountain rescue service, were mountain hikers more cautious because you knew you were on your own in an emergency?
Käsbohrer: I think that there used to be fewer people in emergency situations than today. For two reasons: mountaineers gained experience in the mountains at an early age. They were familiar with the rock and the weather, while today, especially in times of the Corona, people are more spontaneous when animated by a video and say: “Let’s walk up the Wendelstein for a moment”, even if you’ve never undertaken a tour like this before.
Most of the time it works fine – but you should know what to expect up there in February at 1,800 meters. Last summer, with around 3800 missions, the Bavarian Mountain Rescue Service had the highest number of missions in its 100-year history – the view of the mountains animated by the internet certainly played a part in this.
WORLD: Mountain rescuers take great personal risks themselves. And most of them also do this part-time and unpaid. Wouldn’t it be the bare minimum to give rescued people a share of the rescue costs?
Käsbohrer: Uninjured or so-called blocked mountain hikers who cannot free themselves from hopeless situations and therefore request mountain rescue have to bear the costs themselves anyway. If a hiker suffers a heart attack while on a tour or is hit by a rockfall, the statutory health insurances cover the costs of rescue missions. From my point of view, that is also correct. Exercise in nature is more than just sport and is important for physical and mental health.
WORLD: I guess avalanches are the biggest problem right now?
Käsbohrer: Avalanches and falls are certainly the most spectacular accidents, but in my conversations with the mountain rescue service it always appears how diverse their areas of application are. It ranges from sports injuries to rescue, rescuing from impassable terrain and searching for missing people to cave rescue. But first and foremost, the mountain rescuers are called because hikers have medical problems.
Three ski mountaineers died in an avalanche
In an avalanche in Lungau, Austria, three ski mountaineers were buried and killed. One of the casualties is said to be motocross talent René Hofer, reports the Upper Austrian News.
WORLD: How dangerous are the mountains?
Käsbohrer: Around 80 to 100 people died annually in the Bavarian Alps and the German low mountain ranges. And more than half of the people died from a cardiovascular problem or other internal emergency.
But to put the whole thing in perspective: In total, the mountain rescue service comes to around 13,000 missions annually, which means that in well over 90 percent of cases, casualties are rescued alive. I think mountains as such are not dangerous per se, it is the person who moves in them and who has to be aware of the risk.
WORLD: Couldn’t the number of accidents be reduced, perhaps with more rules and guidelines?
Käsbohrer: Rules and guidelines abound. They must also exist, they are binding and a guideline and a code of conduct. The lawyers love them too. But as a mountain guide told me, in the event of a dispute they often do not depict reality and, above all, ignore one’s own responsibility for what is happening.
An example: It is easy for someone who has suffered an avalanche to say: “Somebody drove up there and triggered the avalanche. He should have known that he would trigger an avalanche. ”The situation seems clear. But if the avalanche danger was so obvious to everyone, then no one would have been allowed to enter the slope below – not even the avalanche victim. In the mountains at the latest, I cannot hand over responsibility for my own actions at the valley station.
“Every mountain rescuer has a story with him that he cannot forget,” says Thomas Käsbohrer
Those: millemari
WORLD: What lessons did you learn from the discussions?
Käsbohrer: The conversations with mountain watchmen that led to my book left their mark on me. In the course of my hikes with mountain rescuers, the mountains appeared to me more and more like a building with two entrances: A brightly lit, traditionally opened entrance towards the boulevard through which people stream as if magically drawn from the street.
And an inconspicuous back entrance that nobody can see from the street and that stands above the “mountain rescue service”. Whichever entrance one enters the building through: This book shows where the two groups meet within.
The book by Thomas Käsbohrer “The commitment of my life. Mountain rescuers tell ”, was published by millemari, 268 pages, 39.95 euros. 25 percent of the proceeds go to the mountain rescue service as a donation.
Unusual help from the air – mountain rescue with a jetsuit
Mountain rescue as soon as possible. Thanks to a rocket backpack from an English company, this is now a reality.
Source: WELT / Matthias Herreiner
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