As extreme climbers and professional mountaineers, the “Huberbuam” from Berchtesgaden have already conquered numerous routes and peaks on various parts of the world – right up to the first ascent of a mountain that peaks out of the ice in Antarctica. But the mountains at home in Berchtesgadener Land still present challenges for them. Thomas Huber, at 56 years old the older of the two famous brothers, now had to be rescued by rescue helicopter from the legendary Untersberg between Berchtesgaden and Salzburg.
Thomas Huber himself wrote on his social media channels on Tuesday that there were finally “the best conditions for my project on the Untersberg” – “best grip, dry, most beautiful autumn atmosphere”. And yet, at the entrance to a material depot on the mountain, where Huber had stored a climbing rope in a rock niche, a massive boulder suddenly came loose “that I had already held on to countless times.”
Huber was able to avoid a fall, but the rock apparently injured his ankle. A climbing partner put a bandage on him on a safe ledge, but descending the exposed path on his own was no longer an option – “even though it was difficult for me to accept it,” as Huber himself reports.
So the extreme climber became a case for the mountain rescue service from the valley town of Marktschellenberg and for the Traunstein rescue helicopter Christoph 14. After the air rescue, described by Huber himself as “spectacular”, the hospital doctors in Traunstein quickly gave the all-clear: “The injuries are not serious,” they say it’s from Huber, who is currently traveling through the city and climbing halls away from the mountains with a lecture entitled “In the mountains there is freedom”.