Three mountaineers climbing Königsjodler in Austria ran into poor weather, and one mountaineer got left behind. He called for help, and it took a 14-hour rescue effort to bring him home safely. Thankfully, all three mountaineers and everyone in the rescue party survived.
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“A long and extremely challenging night is behind our mountain rescue team Mühlbach am Hochkönig,” wrote the Austrian mountain rescue organization on Instagram. “On Saturday evening around 7 pm, we were alerted to an emergency at the Königsjodler climbing platform in the Hochkönigmassive. Three young German mountaineers . . . climbed the challenging climb on Saturday afternoon despite bad weather forecast and express warnings. At an altitude of about 2,600 meters, in the area of the emergency ascent, one of the three mountaineers could not go further due to complete exhaustion. His two companions continued their ascent, while the 20-year-old remained alone and made an emergency call. A helicopter rescue was not possible due to the extreme weather conditions.”
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Rescue crews made their way to the climber on foot, reaching him shortly before midnight. The team faced snowfall, icy temperatures, frozen rocks, and poor visibility on the trek back down the mountain.
See photos and videos of the rescue of a mountaineer in Austria below (or here).
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