Rescued at the last second Climber has to cling to a steep face all night
A hiker in the Bavarian Alps was saved from falling to his death at the last minute. The hiker spent the whole night clinging to the rocks before being rescued by helicopter.
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- A mountaineer almost fell from a steep face in Upper Bavaria.
- The man had lost his way during a hike.
- He had to hold out all night clinging to the rocks.
That was a close call: a 61-year-old climber was rescued from a rock face by the mountain rescue service in Ruhpolding, Bavaria, literally at the last second. The man had previously spent a whole night clinging to a steep face on the Sonntagshorn in Upper Bavaria.
As the mountain rescue service announced on Facebook, the man was at the end of his tether. He was in danger of falling at any time.
The mountain hiker had set off alone on a tour in the Chiemgau Alps on Friday. At an altitude of 1750 meters, he lost his way during the challenging tour with climbing sections "and was no longer able to continue climbing independently".
No cell phone reception, calls for help went unheard
The man called for help, but nobody heard him. Because his cell phone had no reception either, the 61-year-old had to spend the night on the rock face. He struggled to hold on to the steep terrain with his hands and feet.
But because the rock around him was loose and brittle, he kept slipping down for hours. When the mountain rescuers found him the next morning after being alerted by a passer-by, the hiker was hanging directly over the edge of a precipice.
Shortly before the fall, the mountain rescuers finally managed to secure him with a rope and fly him to hospital by helicopter. "The man was exhausted and dehydrated, but otherwise uninjured," said the mountain rescue team.
