Black week in Austria’s mountains: Seven dead

A serious series of accidents has occurred in Austria’s mountains: seven people have lost their lives. The Tyrolean mountain rescue service is talking about an August that has seen more operations than ever before.

Innsbruck – The summer season is coming to an end in the Alps. With the end of the summer holidays in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg this weekend, things should soon be quieter on the peaks. But the last week of the high season was a tough one for the mountain rescuers in Austria: seven people died in several operations.

On Thursday (5 September) a mountain hiker (26) from Kempten (Allgäu) had a fatal accident on the Wilder Kaiser (Tyrol). At around 12.47 p.m. she was hiking on the Gamsangersteig above Ellmau when she slipped on a stone. She lost her balance, fell over the edge of the path, slipped over steep grassy terrain and fell 100 metres. The Allgäu woman died at the scene of the accident.

Woman slips from rock into abyss in Tyrol and dies

Two climbers from Bad Tölz (Upper Bavaria) who were climbing on the Kleiner Lafatscher in the Wilder Kaiser in the Karwendel also found themselves in a precarious situation. One of them, 42 years old, was leading the climb when the entire rock he was climbing on suddenly broke off the wall. The rock had a volume of a quarter of a cubic meter.

The man fell about twelve meters. When his climbing partner (43) caught him, the younger man’s face and upper body hit the wall and was hit by boulders as big as his head. The two were able to abseil down themselves and reach the next hut. From there, the 42-year-old was taken to the Innsbruck hospital by ambulance with injuries of an unknown degree.

Climber falls twelve metres into the depths with rocks in Austria

On Wednesday (September 4th), a 65-year-old man from Cologne got off the path in the Eisenauer Klamm near St. Gilgen (Salzkammergut) and fell about 150 meters. He died instantly. On the same day, a 31-year-old woman from Baden-Württemberg was climbing the Postalm via ferrata near Lake Wolfgang with her husband. At an altitude of 920 m, the woman fell for unknown reasons over steep, rocky terrain about 100 meters into the Rußbach and suffered fatal injuries.

A pensioner (77) from Neu-Ulm was discovered dead in the Schnanner Klamm near Landeck (Tyrol) on Tuesday (September 3). Relatives had reported him missing. The pensioner had undertaken a multi-day tour through the Lechtal Alps and did not show up at the agreed time at a train station in Bavaria on Monday. A Dutch e-bike rider (63) had a fatal accident on a farm track in the Verwalltal on Tuesday. Near Kals am Großglockner, an Austrian (48) fell 15 metres during a mountain tour from the Lucknerhaus to the Stüdlhütte and died.

Four Austrians slide from an ice field in South Tyrol – mountain rescue records

Four Austrians were luckier when they slipped on an ice field on the Ortler in South Tyrol on Wednesday morning and fell more than 50 meters. The mountaineers fell into rocky terrain and two of them were seriously injured. The two were flown to the hospital in Bolzano by helicopter. Their comrades were slightly injured. On Sunday, a priest died on the summit of the Traunstein (Upper Austria) while descending from a mountain mass that he had previously celebrated.

In August 2024, the Tyrolean mountain rescue service recorded 602 missions, more than ever before in their records. 45.5 percent of the missions occurred while hiking, 15.6 percent while mountain biking, and 7.2 percent while climbing. 27 percent of the missions were due to falls, 11.3 percent to slips, and 10.4 percent were medical emergencies.

By the end of August, 35 mountain deaths had already been recorded in the Bavarian Alps. In the same period last year, 21 people lost their lives in the Bavarian Alps – in the whole of 2023, the number was 41. The majority of fatal accidents in skiing and mountain sports this year occurred in the Zugspitze region, where six people have already lost their lives. Climate change aggravates the situation, it was said during a rescue exercise in Oberaudorf (district of Rosenheim).

In the Italian South Tyrol, 840 missions had already been counted in the summer season at the beginning of August. In the same period last year, there were “only” 770. “2024 could be a record year,” said Thomas Mair, technical training manager of the mountain rescue service in the South Tyrolean Alpine Association (AVS), to stol.itThe season started relatively late this year due to the bad weather. There have also been deaths in South Tyrol this year.