The two Czech friends, a 48-year-old woman and a 39-year-old man, came to Hallstatt on Thursday evening to spend a few days on vacation and to climb via ferratas. The 39-year-old had climbed the Seewand several times, and his companion also had alpine experience.
On Friday, at seven in the morning, the two climbed up from the Kesselgrund to the Hirschaualm to climb the Seewand via ferrata. The via ferrata has a wall height of approx. 750 meters and has DE on the six-part difficulty scale. It is one of the most difficult and longest in the Eastern Alps.
Climbers made slow progress
At eight o’clock the two of them started climbing, the wall on the north side was still wet at that time. According to the weather forecast, the passage of a cold front with sometimes heavy rain was to be expected. The two progressed far too slowly. The woman in particular was tired and had slight pain in her knee. The two Czechs only reached the point “since 1881” at 1250 meters above sea level – exactly half the wall – at around 2 p.m. This usually takes about two hours.
Nevertheless, they climbed on to the “bat bivouac” at about 1320 meters above sea level. There, however, they recognized the hopelessness and therefore climbed down again. From the wall and still secured to the steel cable of the via ferrata, they thought they saw a path far away from the via ferrata. This one they headed for. However, the path was only a chamois change and led the woman and the man into impassable steep terrain. Around 4:30 p.m., exhausted, the two made an emergency call. An alpine policeman, who speaks fluent Czech, helped with the translation.
After the weather conditions and, above all, visibility improved, the helicopter crew managed to rescue the two climbers at around 6:15 p.m. and fly them down into the valley. The rescued, who refused medical attention, were taken to the parking lot to their car.
Source: Nachrichten
