A third German has fallen to their death in the Austrian mountains.
A 59-year-old man was climbing the Wagendrischelhorn mountain with his partner on Saturday afternoon, but at an altitude of some 2,100 metres, fell 50 metres into a steep gully, Salzburg State Police said on Sunday.
He was some 30 metres ahead of his partner at the time of the accident.
His 65-year-old partner immediately notified emergency services and a rescue helicopter and emergency doctor were dispatched, but the help came too late for the man, who suffered fatal injuries.
The couple were climbing along the grade two-to-three ‘Zellerführe’ route on the south face of the mountain in the Pinzgau region at the time of the accident.
The cause of the man’s fall is not yet clear. Police said the Germans were not attached with ropes, but that they did have appropriate climbing equipment.
The Zellerführe is generally considered an easy climb and the route is often attempted without ropes.
The Wagendrischelhorn is in the Berchtesgaden Alps on the border between Salzburg and Bavaria. It’s the third-highest peak of the Reiter Alpe.
Over in Tyrol, a 58-year-old German man was found dead on the Hohe Geige on Saturday, police said.
The man, who had wanted to go up the mountain, had told a mountain hut owner that he wanted to be back by 4pm.
When the German man failed to return, police and mountain rescue services began a search and found the body of the man who appeared to have fallen.
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A week earlier, a German hiker fell 100 metres to their death in Vorarlberg. The 54-year-old man had been hiking with four other Germans in the Zimbajoch area of the Montafon valley, but tripped while descending from the summit, APA news agency reported.
He fell 80 to 100 metres down a rocky gully and died on the spot.