Disory of Laura Dahlmeier: Rope partner describes fatal accident

At an improvised press conference in Skardu, a city at the foot of the 6,069 meter high Laila Peak, Laura Dahlmeier’s climbing partner Marina Krauss described the accident three days after the tragic death of the former world-class biathlete. “I observed how the Laura hit a huge stone and how it was then thrown against the wall,” said the young cliffer about the fateful moment when Dahlmeier was hit on the head.

The accident occurred on Monday at 5,700 meters at the Laila Peak in the Pakistani Karakorum Mountains. Krauss had already arrived at the next abseiling position, Dahlmeier followed. The two women had decided to reverse – even before reaching the summit.

After the rockfall, Dahlmeier “no longer moved, she did not give any signs. I called and there was no reaction,” Krauss describes the further events. There was no way for them to get to Dahlmeier without endangering their own life. After an emergency call and after trying everything possible, she started relegation alone.

According to the weather report, the conditions had initially been good before the accident. Krauss and Dahlmeier felt sure to “definitely get the route technically on it”. But during the day the circumstances deteriorated, the snow became softer. “If we had been on it for half an hour earlier, we would have come down safely,” Krauss looks back.

The well -known mountaineer Thomas Huber (58), who had still tried to get to the injured Dahlmeier, was also present at the Pakistan press conference. He emphasized that the two women had done everything right and Marina Krauss had behaved correctly after the accident. The decision to reverse before reaching the summit was correct. “Not the summit is the goal, but life,” said Huber.

The experienced alpinist has on Thursday afternoon of German. “Ahhh Laura, your tent remains empty now, but your energy shines in these mountains up to eternity. All the pain about what has experienced is hardly to be put into words,” he writes about pictures of the death and further recordings.

Huber also describes how he had started with the rescue of Dahlmeier together with other mountaineers, but already “had a” multiple overflight on the Layla Peak “with a helicopter” that Laura had risen to her last summit “.

However, the deceased lived her “dream” until the end, “every second”. According to Huber, Huber himself will now go back into the mountains. “Certainly I thought about how it should go on now, but you, Laura, gave me the answer and that’s why I go back to Choktoi from Saturday and I continue the way that Laura would have also taken,” he concludes his Instagram contribution.