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The 23-year-old from Pinzgau may have died as a result of the accident, the mountain rescue said. After the search for the man was halted yesterday evening, today he was found on a branch under a layer of snow.
The young skier fell into the crevasse Sunday around 1pm at about 2,700 meters above sea level in Schmiedingerkees. It must have missed the roughly 100 meter long crack. It was open, but hidden behind a dome. The freerider’s colleagues immediately alerted the emergency services. A mountain rescuer who was privately on a skiing excursion in the area was caught in the crevasse a bit later.
Rescue in difficult conditions
However, the man was only able to see parts of the equipment. Furthermore, the length of the rope was initially insufficient to rappel deeper into the abyss of the twisted and branched edge. With a column-mounted mountain device, a tripod that is placed over the abyss, it was later possible to penetrate to a depth of about 40 meters.
Mountain rescuers focused on the trail of the fall and suspected the man under a large amount of fallen snow. “Sometimes the gap was only 40 to 50 centimeters wide,” said Raimund Schiffer of the Kaprun Mountain Rescue Service. “We had to work in very difficult conditions.” So we had to scoop the snow out of the crevice in a backpack and get it out. Time and again, the snow threatened to fall from above on the rescuers in the crevasse.
Police helicopter brought corpse to the valley
Sunday night the search for the victim was called off due to darkness and dangerous conditions. Mountain rescuers from Salzburg and Tyrol resumed work Monday morning, digging a total of five meters deep. In the morning, a mountain rescuer saw more evidence of the young man at a depth of about 20 meters. Using a steam probe, rescuers were able to quickly reach the buried subject and free him. It had landed on a side slit that was full of snow. The body was recovered and transferred to the valley in a police helicopter.
Some 20 mountain rescuers from Salzburg and Tyrol, three Alpine policemen, a police helicopter and the mountain railway service were on duty. The accident occurred along a designated descent route, which is currently closed due to lack of snow.
