The search for a missing 24-year-old climber from Lower Saxony is not without danger. It has to be stopped several times because the danger for the helpers is too great, and hope is dwindling more and more. Now the mountain rescuers locate a signal – and set off again.
After a new clue, mountain rescuers in the Berchtesgaden Alps started looking for a mountaineer who had an accident again in the afternoon. A police spokesman said the signal was received with a special positioning technique on a helicopter from a rock face in the search area. The helicopter is now supposed to bring mountain rescuers to the Hochkalter area near Ramsau to search for the 24-year-old.
“This is the last straw in the search for today.” The mountain rescuers had previously given up the search for the injured mountaineer from Lower Saxony because the danger to the helpers was too great. The helicopter then flew over the search area for the last time and picked up the signal, the police spokesman said. What triggered the signal was initially unclear. The tracking technology reacts to semiconductors and reflectors, such as those sewn into some outdoor jackets.
The 24-year-old climber has been missing since Saturday. At that time he had made an emergency call because he had slipped in a snowstorm just below the summit of the 2607 meter high Hochkalter and could hardly hold his ground in the steep and slippery terrain. After several phone calls, contact broke off.
The rescuers waited for days in the valley, ready for action, until a helicopter with a special locating probe was finally able to take off on Wednesday. As a result, at least the young man’s backpack was found. A Bundeswehr Eurofighter was also deployed, supporting the rescuers with positioning technology and high-resolution aerial photographs.
But since these did not give any indication of the whereabouts of the missing person either, three teams of mountain rescuers and police mountain guides searched the steep gully and the rock faces above and below the site with avalanche probes and electronic tracking devices. During the search, they were secured by ropes and, because of the adverse conditions and the alpine terrain, had both ice axes – these are special pickaxes – and avalanche emergency equipment with them.
