Cita
Dailymail-2012
A German mountain climber has been rescued alive after surviving for six days inside the crevasse of an Austrian glacier

The 70-year-old fell through a 20 metre crack in the ice while on a solo climb up Schrankogel, a mountain in the Stubai Alps in Tyrol, on Tuesday.

Passing climbers heard screams and shouts for help from inside crevasse and alerted authorities to the trapped man.




He lay on the mountain-side, wearing a waterproof jacket and some form of scarf tied around his head.

Rescuers said the pensioner's shouts and screams for help were heard by passing climbers who alerted the authorities

The team of seven rescuers checked the climber at the scene for injury.

The pensioner was then airlifted to Innsbruck hospital suffering from hypothermia and exhaustion following his ordeal.

He had set off six days ago and was walking to the Amberger Hütte when the accident occurred at around 3000 metres above sea level, the Austrian Independent reported.

Franz Santer, from the mountain rescue team in Gries im Sellrain who coordinated the rescue, said: ‘The rescue went well. We got the man out of the crevasse with a rope pulley.

He added that the climber had been resting on a ledge following the fall.

The man, who had been climbing solo, is thought to have stood on snow covering a crevasse which then gave way below him.

Mr Santer added: ‘Other climbers heard screams and shouts for help.


Rescuers said the pensioner's shouts and screams for help were heard by passing climbers who alerted the authorities

Read more: [www.dailymail.co.uk]

Cita
Express.co.uk - 2012
Manfred Walter, 70, plunged through a 20 metre crack in the ice during a solo climb up Schrankogel, a mountain in the Stubai Alps in Austria.

Despite his expertise in climbing, the elderly German suffered a broken hip in the fall and he was unable to climb out alone.

In agonising pain from his injury and with no way out – trapped on an ice shelf just 40 cm wide each way – Manfred began to give up hope.

He said: "On each side of the ice shelf it plunged down too far to see.



"I kept thinking that if I fell I would fall so far that nobody would ever find me, at least not until the glacier melted."



Using his walking stick for extra support, Manfred managed to balance on his precarious perch for almost a week.

The climber plunged through a 20 metre crack in the ice europics The climber plunged through a 20 metre crack in the ice/ europics

He said: "I was terrified, I was constantly thinking of ways to stay awake and was scared that if I fell asleep I'd fall down the hole and that would be the end."

"I lost my hat, so I used my underpants to keep my head warm.

"The thirst was unbearable, the snow was too cold too eat, so I had to try and melt water, but my mouth was too dry to eat.

"I dreamt of cherries in a tin, and I even toyed with the idea of jumping and putting an end to it all -everything goes through your head in that kind of situation," he added.

By the time he was freed six days and six nights later, Manfred had suffered from frostbite in his toes, severe malnourishment and kidney problems from drinking the water from the glacier.

I dreamt of cherries in a tin, and I even toyed with the idea of jumping and putting an end to it all

Manfred Walter

He had survived by eating just one square of chocolate every day, drinking ice and shouting for help until he lost his voice.



"It was so hard to breath and I was worrying about hypothermia - thoughts of God and my family kept me going. When I heard a voice saying 'We will get help' it was a fantastic feeling," he told the Austrian Times.



Medic Volker Wenzel, who treated the mountaineer for hypothermia in hospital, said: "He had a lot of training behind him and was very well equipped."



"He stayed awake until he was rescued – he knew that if he went to sleep he might never wake up," he added.



Manfred is recovering well and is now out of the intensive care ward, but is likely to be kept in hospital for some weeks.

Not at all put off by his nightmarish experience, Manfred said he planned to celebrate his recovery by going for a walk in the mountains.