11-Year-Old Girl Uninjured After Falling 170 Meters on the Wendelstein

Thanks to Bergschlawiner of the MRA International Committee and Seattle Mountain Rescue for sending in this story.

Eleven-year-old Elena can thank her guardian angel for surviving a 170-meter fall with only a few bruises on Christmas Eve while spending the afternoon at the Wendelsteinhaus panorama restaurant with her parents and grandparents.

According to the Bergrettung Leizachtal, mountain rescue volunteers the girl slipped and fell 170 meters down a rocky gully on the southwest side of the observatory terrace and landed in soft snow as shown in the Bergwacht photo below.

It happened at 3:40 pm on Christmas Eve. As the girl’s parents and grandparents were drinking coffee at the mountain panorama restaurant (pictured above), the kids were playing around in the snow below the restaurant.

Little Elena, being curious, climbed under the fence and slipped on a patch of ice and fell. The other children watched as Elena disappeared down the steep snow and ran to tell the parents what happened and they notified the Wendelsteinhaus manager who called the Bergwacht for help.

Standing on the observation deck, 33-year-old Michael King, the son-in-law of the Wendelsteinhaus manager, saw the whole accident when the girl fell from the walkway between the observation deck and the chapel (pictured above). Elena’s father tried to climb down to his daughter but was unable to go any farther. Michael was an experienced climber and grabbed his ice axe to cut steps down the icy slope while wearing only tennis shoes. After a half hour he heard Elena’s cries while the strong wind was blowing. She was standing next to a tree and holding on for her life. Michael gave the girl his jacket and the Bergwacht rescuers arrived 10 minutes later.

Four volunteer rescuers from the Bergwacht Leizachtal arrived at the scene with the cable car and were able to spot the girl underneath the cable car. When they saw the girl moving, the rescuers breathed a sigh of relief. They set up a rope at the cable car station and two rescuers rappelled down to the girl. The gully was full of large rocks but the girl missed them all and escaped serious injuries, according to Rudi Wuttig the operations leader. Rudi Wutting described Elena’s fall as “more of a flight than a slide.” The girl only contacted the snow surface a few times and a few inches right or left and she would have landed in the rocks.

The girl was in shock as she was being treated by the rescuers but was quiet until the Helikopter Christopher 1 arrived from Munich. The rescuers called for the helicopter due to the oncoming darkness and the strong winds. An air rescuer was winched down to the girl and the girl and her Good Samaritan helper were hoisted on board and flown to the hospital in Munich. The photo below shows the scene from the helicopter.