Rescuers spend ten hours retrieving injured climber on Hochkönig

A 27-year-old Czech climber was seriously injured in a fall on the Hochkönig mountain in Salzburg and spent the night being rescued in steep, wintry terrain. The operation took about ten hours, ORF reported.

The climber fell at about 2,300 metres while descending from the Matrashaus on the 2,941-metre summit. He had chosen the steep Birgkar route, which has been closed in its upper section for some time because of rockfall danger. After the fall, he slid into a gully.

He called mountain rescue at about 5.40pm, nearly an hour after sunset. Rescuers said he had serious injuries to his hands, spine and ribs. They struggled to locate him in the dark and snow, eventually finding him in a small hollow about 180 metres from the steep, rocky Birgkar ascent.

Rescuers set up ropes to reach him and lower him down several hundred metres. He was able to walk part of the way, accompanied by an emergency doctor. A rescue helicopter could not take off because of dense fog in the valley. The climber was taken down to the valley and handed over to the Red Cross.

The operation ended at about 4.10am, involving 34 mountain rescuers from Mühlbach am Hochkönig and Dienten. A regional rescue official said the climber had told rescuers that an app showed a circular route from Mitterfeldalm to Arthurhaus, descending through Birgkar. He said poor route planning and a misjudgment of the climber’s abilities had put both the climber and rescue teams at serious risk.