“They were very lucky”: 8 young people rescued from Schafberg

The young Hungarians were on their way to visit relatives in Germany by car on Friday and during the journey they spontaneously decided on the mountain tour, which takes 12 kilometers and 1,200 meters in altitude from the Winkl district to the Schafberg and back again. They were therefore poorly equipped, without local knowledge or route planning. The mountain tour ended with a mountain rescue operation.

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Tour discovered on app

The eight young people traveled from Hungary on Friday to visit family members in Germany. Without further ado, they decided to go on a tour of the Schafberg, said the mountain rescuers from St. Wolfgang. They started their “trip,” which they discovered on a tour planning app, at 8 a.m. from Winkel, a district of St. Gilgen. The teenagers chose the climb over the path towards Kesselkopf, where they lost the marked path and ended up on an unmarked Jägersteig.

• Also read: “Lack of feeling for the mountains”: Mountain rescue had to be deployed more often in 2023 than ever before

From there the group came to the not-quite-way over the ridge, also called the “Stallion”. “This climb is not without danger and has already led to a number of mountain rescue missions,” said operations manager Sigi Gadocher from the St. Wolfgang mountain rescue service.

“That could have ended badly”

Due to the stormy winds, they were exhausted and sought shelter in the area of ​​the Schafberg Hotel. At around 1 p.m. they made an emergency call because a young person was “extremely exhausted”. The exhausted hiker received first aid. “When he got better, we climbed down safely together,” said Gadocher. At around 4.20 p.m. the mountain rescuers and the Hungarian group reached the starting point in Winkl.

“The Hungarian young people were very lucky; such a trip with inadequate and very poor equipment, local knowledge and tour planning could have ended badly,” said Gadocher.

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