Emergency
Mountain emergency: Mountaineer rescued in snowstorm on Zugspitze
Clouds of fog envelop the viewing platform with the summit cross on the Zugspitze during a snowstorm (archive photo). Emergency calls were made from several groups of mountaineers after they were unable to continue at an altitude of around 2500 metres due to the weather and fresh snow. Photo
© Peter Kneffel/dpa
Constant rain in the valley and snowdrifts in the mountains do not stop numerous mountaineers from climbing the Zugspitze. But they do not make it to the top – instead they make emergency calls.
Several groups of climbers are at the Zugspitze got into trouble in the snow. In the afternoon, the mountaineers were safely escorted by the mountain rescue service to the Sonnalpin glacier restaurant on the Zugspitzplatt, the mountain rescue service said.
The mountaineers set out for Germany’s highest peak despite constant rain in the valley and massive snowfall in the mountains, reported Bayerischer Rundfunk. The snow masses there were sometimes two meters high and visibility was only about 100 meters.
Emergency calls were made by several groups, a mountain rescue spokesman said. Due to the weather and fresh snow, they were unable to move any further at an altitude of around 2,500 metres, around 900 metres from the Sonnalpin.
The mountain rescue service was called out. Employees of the Zugspitzbahn were also out with snow groomers to search for the climbers, a spokeswoman for the Zugspitzbahn said. With temperatures below freezing, the Zugspitz cable car was unable to operate in some cases due to the weather. The rollers of the cable car riders were partially frozen, the spokeswoman said.
On May 1st, the ski season at the 2,962-meter-high Zugspitze came to an end – with snow conditions still good.