Why Laura Dahlmeier didn’t want her body to be recovered

Laura Dahlmeier’s fate moves the republic. The ex-biathlete and climber had an accident at Laila Peak in Pakistan at the beginning of the week. A rockfall met her. Two days later, the worst fears became sad certainty: Dahlmeier did not survive the accident. To date, her body has not been recovered – an increase in such unfavorable weather conditions would be too dangerous.

As her management said, Dahlmeier explicitly wrote down that in the event of an accident, nobody should risk his life to recover her body. Mountaineer legend Reinhold Messner said in an interview with NTV that this request is by no means an exception: “I would say it is part of the value catalog of alpinism.” In the past centuries, many climbers would have left such a message, said Messner. For the relatives. For that afterwards.

The desire not to endanger anyone else, even if something happens to you, is part of the unspoken mountaineering code. This catalog has emerged in the past 200 years of alpinism because the athletes had recognized that there was always a residual risk, says Messner. “Anyone who rises all their life will also have to agree that death may be part of.”

This is also confirmed by Dörte Pietron. The mountain guide and trainer of the women’s expedition squad of the German Alpine Club explains star-If request: “The attitude that nobody should end up in danger in order to recover your own body is very common among alpinists, I would even call it a ‘common sense’.” The fact that Dahlmeier even left a written order testifies to a “very serious and reflective approach.”

The extreme mountaineer Thomas Huber, who was originally supposed to lead Dahlmeier’s rescue mission, said that the team discovered the victory with a rescue helicopter during a cross-trip. When you see the viewing, it became clear to you that the 31-year-old could not have survived the incident. Her body was in a difficult terrain, which would have meant a high risk of the rescue team in the event of a recovery. Therefore, the decision was made not to start the mission. Also to respect Dahlmeier’s wish.

On Thursday afternoon, the Pakistani authorities also published the decision not to initially initially initiate any further recovery attempts. This was announced by the spokesman for the responsible provincial government of Gilgit-Baltists, Faizullah Faraq, the dpa news agency. The local rescue workers were also an important reason to respect Dahlmeier’s last wish.

So far, it is unclear whether the body could be recovered in the near future. Dahlmeier’s family did not want to make a final decision. According to Pietron, the decision as to whether such a mission is taking place is always weighed on several levels. Here, for example, the family’s interest in recovering the body or a “public interest” play a role if the accident is in a much committed route, for example.

However, self -protection is always in the foreground in such an operation. “As far as I know, a body on the mountain is always recovered if there is a possibility to do this without endangering the emergency services,” explains Pietron. “I think it would not be legally allowed in Germany not to rescue a body, unless the associated risk would be too high or you don’t know where it is.” The mountain rescue in the Federal Republic is well trained and has the necessary funds, so that there is almost no place where a body cannot be recovered earlier or later, without exposing the emergency services inal risks, said the expert.

However, the situation at Laila Peak in Pakistan is more difficult, says Pietron. Whether there is a rescue mission there is always related to the many regional, situational, financial, political and climatic factors. “The fact is that Pakistan has many areas that are much more remote and difficult to reach than is the case in Germany; larger heights, poorer infrastructure and so on. In the base camp, i.e. the starting point for the mountain rigs, you are often on foot through pathless terrain. That is why the risk and the costs of recovery there are generally much higher than in Germany.”

In addition, in Germany it is professional and specialized rescue organizations, says Pietron. “In Pakistan, only the military has to fly the helicopter and permission in many regions and there is no rescue organization or mountain rescue service that could carry out terrestrial recovery.”

The expert is known to both scenarios: cases in which a body was or had to be left or had to be left on the mountain and cases in which he was recovered, explains Pietron.

The Laila Peak, on which the 31-year-old has an accident, is one of the most difficult to ride peaks in the world. Even if Dahlmeier was “one of the best mountaineers worldwide”, according to Messner, an ascent is risky. Dahlmeier was not looking for the highest but more difficult mountains, says Messner.

Her rope partner Marina Krauss explained after Dahlmeier’s death, the accident occurred during relegation. Both had broken off the climb that Dahlmeier had been hit by a large stone on the way down. Ultimately, no more and no less than a big accident: “If we had been there half an hour earlier, we would have been run down,” said Krauss.