Press
A group of Bavarian schoolchildren wanted to ride their mountain bikes over a 2,662-meter-high mountain pass in Tyrol. They got stuck in half a meter of hard snow. The rescue will be expensive.
Mayrhofen/Landshut – It was supposed to be an exciting school project: Eleven eleventh-graders from the high school in Furth near Landshut (Lower Bavaria) wanted to cycle to Jesolo on the Adriatic (Italy) within a week. The project was planned for a good cause, it was supposed to raise money for the BR’s Sternstunden aid campaign. Comedian Harry G. took over the patronage.
Group of cyclists encounters half a meter of hard snow and is stranded
The main Alpine ridge was to be crossed on the third day at the Heiliggeistjöchl in the Tyrolean Zillertal (Austria). But on the way up, the eleven cyclists and the accompanying BR camera team encountered half a meter of hard snow, and the group had to carry their bikes. When they reached the 2,662 meter high pass, there was also hard snow on the other side. They would have had to carry their bikes further. The group called the alpine emergency number, and 18 people were then flown down to the valley in the Libelle Tirol police helicopter. The bikes remained at the pass for the time being.
On Saturday (July 6), the Mayrhofen mountain rescue team picked up the mountain bikes. 14 mountain rescuers set off on foot at 6 a.m. “The conditions at the pass were not easy, because it was cold and windy,” said the head of the Mayrhofen mountain rescue team, Andreas Eder, to IPPEN.MEDIA: “Bringing the bikes into the valley with 14 people wasn’t easy.”
Mountain rescuers picked up 18 mountain bikes parked at the pass
Some of the alpine rescuers took a mountain bike in each hand and slid across the hard frozen snow. By midday, all the bikes were in the valley and stored in Mayrhofen.
Eder says of the tour: “It could have been planned better, you don’t actually cycle there. You have to carry the bikes, there are just big stones lying around, and on the south side it goes steeply down through rocks.” At least the group stopped the tour in time and got help.
Operations manager: “The tour could have been planned better.”
“It would have been a long, cold night.” According to Eder, the Mayrhofen mountain rescue service will now issue a bill for 4,000 euros. In addition, there are the costs for the police helicopter – 85 euros per minute. The tour leader was initially unavailable.
At the end of June, a hiker fell to his death in Sölden, also in Tyrol. A young German hiker fell to his death near the Grossglockner in June. A ski tourer caused a stir when he fell and dragged other summiteers down into the valley with him.
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