Three Freestyle Skiers Stranded

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

Who: Three young “free style” skiers, ages 18, 22 and 23.
Where: Krippenstein, Obertauern, Austria
Their mistake: Failure to be adequately prepared of equipped for winter “freestyle” skiing conditions
What happened: Three young men from Vienna tried to do a freestyle ski descent on the Krippenstein Tuesday afternoon when they ended up stranded by a cliff at the 1,700 meter level and were unable to retreat or continue down.

They called some friends for help at 1:00 pm using their cell phone who then called for a rescue. Five mountain rescue volunteers from the Bergrettung Obertraun and an Alpine Policeman quickly responded. The rescuers had to lower the freezing but uninjured young men almost 100 meters down a steep gully.

According to Alpine Policeman Hans Huber, the young men were poorly equipped and had no helmets, avalanche transceivers, probes or shovels with them. The wet and cold men were taken by a snowmobile to the Krippenstein mountain lodge and were given hot tea before they descended the mountain themselves.

The cost: The three men will probably be charged about 1,000 Euros for the cost of their rescue.

The rescuers: The Bergrettung Obertauern, organized in 1952, has about 35 active volunteer members who serve a 90-square-kilometer area. Just last month they had a realistic winter training exercise during a snow storm on the Krippenstein, which is described as an “El Dorado” for free style skiers, where they did exactly the kind of training as the rescue Tuesday.