accidents
Climber dies in Zugspitze crash
View of the Zugspitze from Austria. photo
© Daniel Karmann/dpa
A man falls around 400 meters before being fatally injured on a glacier. After the crash, a rescue operation begins for other climbers nearby.
The climber who fell and died on the Zugspitze has been identified. The dead man is a 61-year-old man from the district of Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, the police said.
According to an eyewitness, the man was on the Höllental via ferrata just below the summit on Friday. A small snow slide caught the 61-year-old and swept him away, as a police spokesman said. According to the information, the mountaineer fell about 400 meters deep before he was fatally injured on the Höllentalferner glacier.
The called rescue workers could only determine the death of the man. Eleven other climbers who were nearby and noticed the accident had to be rescued by helicopter because, according to the police, they were in shock and the rescue workers were expecting more descents on the via ferrata. A via ferrata is an artificial climbing path that is built on rock faces or along mostly steep rock passages.
The investigation into the cause of the accident is ongoing. Third-party debt is currently not assumed.
Because of the wintry conditions in the summit regions, such snow slides are not uncommon. According to the police, further departures are to be expected in the next few days and weeks.