Alpine police honoured for 10-hour Dachstein crevasse rescue

Several alpine police officers from Gmunden and Kirchdorf have been honoured for rescuing two German mountaineers from a crevasse on the Hoher Dachstein, ORF reported. The men fell about 15 metres into the crevasse on 5 September and were seriously injured.

Strong winds and fog made a helicopter rescue impossible. The operation lasted 10 hours and continued into the early morning, when the two men were finally brought to safety.

The officers involved, from the Alpine Operations Groups in Gmunden and Kirchdorf, were honoured this week at the Upper Austria State Police Directorate. A presentation of photographs from the accident site showed the conditions in which the rescue took place. State Police Director Andreas Pilsl praised the officers’ work as “a true heroic feat”.