Helicopter rescues group of schoolchildren from the Alps
In the context of a charity event, a group of students intends to cross the Alps by bike. However, their ambitious tour ends at an altitude of 2000 meters. A helicopter from the mountain rescue had to be called in.
A Bavarian student group got into trouble during their Alpine bike crossing in frozen snow and were rescued by a helicopter. According to the Austrian police, the eleven students and teachers of a gymnasium in Lower Bavaria, Germany, had set off on their tour from Wurth on Tuesday, aiming to reach Jesolo, an Adriatic Sea resort in Italy.
Accompanied by seven adults, including a teacher and a male teacher, the youths planned to reach the nearly 2700-meter-high Heilig-Geist-Jöchl in Austria by Thursday. On the ascent route, there was half a meter of snow, so they had to carry their bicycles from approximately 2000 meters in altitude. After reaching the highest point, the group leader canceled the tour due to the exhaustion of group members and the snow conditions and alerted the emergency services.
The 18 people were rescued unharmed by a police helicopter. They were dropped off on an alpine pasture, where they were guided by the Mayrhofen mountain rescue team to the Zillertal valley. According to online postings, the students and teachers had intensively prepared for the more than 500-kilometer-long tour with around 10,500 meters in elevation gain.
"A self-sufficient and safe descent was no longer feasible for the exhausted group members due to the advanced hour," said a police spokesperson, according to the "Bild" newspaper. The group aimed to collect money for a good cause with their tour. The event was covered by Bavarian Radio. Two BR employees participated.
The fate of the abandoned bicycles is still unclear, according to the Austrian "Kurier" newspaper. Either they had to be flown down by helicopter or carried down by mountain rescuers. In both cases, the group would have to bear the costs.
The Bavarian group's trip through the Alps initially aimed to reach Austria, specifically the Heilig-Geist-Jöchl, which is an international border between Germany and Austria. Despite their preparations, they encountered challenging snow conditions, forcing them to carry their bikes above 2000 meters.
