Brought to hut

Two brothers rescued from difficult via ferrata

Five men from the mountain rescue team and two Alpine police officers climbed up to the Dutchmen

(Bild: Bergrettung)

A Dutchman called the mountain rescue service because his older brother was unable to cope with the difficulty of the via ferrata. Due to the clouds, it was not possible to use a helicopter. Seven men climbed up to the holidaymakers, but did not accompany them down to the valley, but to a hut.  

Two Dutch brothers (45, 49) had a high alpine climbing tour in mind when they set off from the Simonyhütte to the Hohe Kreuz late Tuesday morning. They wanted to descend from the summit via the so-called "Amon via ferrata" in the direction of the Adamekhütte, having planned the tour with the help of a cell phone app. Although the app indicated a duration of four to five hours, it unfortunately did not indicate the difficulty of the climb.

No helicopter rescue possible
It came as it had to: while the younger brother had no problems, the 49-year-old fell several times until he was finally unable to continue at the most difficult point. So the younger brother alerted the mountain rescue service at 7.50 pm. Due to the low cloud cover, a rescue by helicopter was impossible - so seven men, five mountain rescuers and two alpine police officers, were flown to the Adamekhütte, from where they climbed up to the brothers. 

Had to be supported to the hut
The 45-year-old was able to complete the via ferrata on his own, but the 49-year-old had to be roped down around 60 meters onto the Great Gosau Glacier. The exhausted man also had to be supported during the two-hour descent back to the Adamekhütte until they arrived there at 11.15 pm. The emergency services made their way back down to the valley early on Friday morning, while the two brothers managed the last stretch down to Gosau in pairs.