Mountaineer missing in Ennstal: search canceled again

Once again, the Styrian mountain rescuers were challenged in adverse conditions at the weekend: After they went out on a search for a young German in the Totes Gebirge on Saturday, a search for a missing alpinist was also carried out in Ennstal, Styria, on Sunday. There had been no trace of the 38-year-old train driver for days. In heavy snow and wind gusts of up to 80 km/h, five teams searched for the mountaineer in the Tressenstein and Grimminghütte area in the municipality of Stainach-Pürgg (Liezen district) since early Sunday morning.

• Also read: “Surprised” by heavy snowfall: Young Berliner rescued from Totem Gebirge
• Article on the topic: Father and son rescued by midwinter Rax

The area was combed for hours in waist-deep snow, and the operation had to be called off late in the evening. “A further ascent by search teams towards Grimming was not possible due to the current avalanche situation with more than 1.5 meters of fresh snow transported by wind,” said the Stainach mountain rescue service. 30 emergency services from the Stainach mountain rescue service, operational teams from the avalanche and search dog team from the Styria mountain rescue service, together with the Alpine police, the Libelle Steiermark police helicopter and the drone team from the Styria Red Cross were involved in the large-scale operation. The landlady of the Grimminghütte also helped with the search.

Search continued on Monday

“If new Alpine police findings are made, as well as if the danger of avalanches decreases and the weather improves, the search from the air and on the ground will continue with the support of police helicopters,” said the rescue workers on Sunday evening. The search was resumed on Monday morning using a police helicopter. The ascent and descent routes on the Grimming were flown over, but did not provide any new information.

The search was also difficult on Monday because of the weather. Due to the strong wind, the helicopter was unable to reach the summit area, and the bivouac box just below the summit could not be reached. “A ground-based search was too risky because of the high risk of avalanches,” said Enrico Radaelli, press spokesman for the Styrian mountain rescue service on Monday evening in an OÖN interview. A bad weather front is forecast for Tuesday, which makes further searches unlikely. The situation will be re-evaluated in a meeting with the Alpine police on Wednesday.

It was not immediately known where exactly the 38-year-old from Graz went. His car was found on Saturday at the Niederstuttern car park, which is the starting point for tours to the Tressenstein and Grimming. The last cell phone signal was also located south in this area.

Operation in the Dead Mountains

It was only on Saturday that the mountain rescuers in Styria went out on a challenging mission. A young Berliner wanted to cross the Dead Mountains on snowshoes. He also set out on Thursday, but on Saturday he was unable to continue in the Elmgrube due to the heavy snowfall. In a rescue operation that lasted hours, the Ausseer mountain rescuers brought him safely to the valley.

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