Fatal via ferrata accident during a thunderstorm

What to do if you are confronted with a thunderstorm on the via ferrata? To unhook the set or not? In the accident described above, a father – after feeling electric shocks several times via the steel cable – decided to do so and his son decided against it. Both continued to climb in order to quickly reach a fall-safe place. The unsecured father fell fatally, but his son was rescued. In an interview with Andreas Jentsch from bergsteigen.com, “the” platform for via ferratas and ski tours, he criticized the lack of clear recommendations and doctrines – we will deal with the topic of thunderstorms in detail in the next summer issue.

Pascal Preimesberger
Police mountain guide
Alpine Einsatzgruppe (AEG) Gmunden Officer at Bad Goisern police station

Course of the accident

On Friday, July 12, 2024, a father (61) and his son (25) climbed the Intersport via ferrata on the Großer Donnerkogel (2,054 m) in the municipality of Gosau (Upper Austria). Shortly after midday, they took the Gosaukammbahn cable car to the Zwieselalm alpine pasture area and went to the start at the Obere Törleggsattel.

The ascent from the mountain station takes approx. 20 minutes, the via ferrata (approx. 470 m) takes approx. 3 hours and the descent another 1.5 hours. The difficulties of the Intersport via ferrata are rated C/D in two places, there are also C and B/C places and otherwise mostly B terrain. This is a classic via ferrata with the highlight of the well-known and much-photographed 40-metre giant ladder, which is used to cross a deep gorge (information/topo: www.bergsteigen.com)

The two mountaineers were about halfway up the via ferrata when a thunderstorm was forecast to hit them at around 1:30 pm. Due to their exposed position, they had no other option but to wait out the heavy rain, including thunder and lightning, on the mountain. They decided to continue along the via ferrata to a safer position, where they could wait out the storm without the risk of falling.
As they continued their ascent, they both received or felt several electric shocks on the steel cable, which were caused by lightning strikes in the artificial climbing structure above their position. In addition, the rocky and partly earthy ascent route became very wet and slippery due to the heavy rain. The son therefore fell into his via ferrata set once, but remained uninjured and the set’s shock absorber did not trigger.

After receiving an “electrical impulse” for about the third time, the father decided, according to the son, to unhook his via ferrata set from the steel cable and continue on without a belay. The son was not convinced by his father’s idea, told him of his concerns and continued to belay himself with the via ferrata set.

At around 13:45, they were in a traverse (B), from which the 40-meter giant ladder and a “safe” place to wait out the thunderstorm can be seen for the first time. The son noticed that his father, who was climbing ahead – and still unsecured – wanted to turn to him, possibly to let him know. At this moment, the father (according to the son) slipped on the wet rock or soil and fell over the steeply sloping terrain below. The son was only a few meters behind and had to watch the fall. However, he was unable to help his father.

Alerting and rescue operations

As he could not see the fallen man from his position, the son immediately tried to communicate with his father by shouting. As these calls were not answered, he tried to reach him by telephone. After receiving no response, he called the mountain rescue service on 140 and informed them that his father had fallen from the via ferrata during a thunderstorm. He realized that there was nothing he could do for his father on his own and walked just a few minutes further to the foot of the giant ladder, where he was able to find a flat, safe place for himself for the first time. There he unhooked himself from the via ferrata and waited for the rescue team, who had already been notified.

When the Gosau mountain rescue station was alerted, the alpine police officer on duty at Bad Goisern police station was also informed about the accident. From 1:50 p.m., the operation was managed jointly by the head of the mountain rescue service and the alpine police officer.

The nearest emergency helicopter (NAH) Martin 1 (Martin Flugrettung, Heli Austria) from St. Johann im Pongau was requested to carry out an initial assessment of the situation and locate the person who had crashed. The helicopter was only able to take off after the storm front had passed and therefore only arrived at the scene of the accident at around 2:45 pm. In the meantime, the mountain rescue team prepared for a ground-based operation and took the gondola lift up to the Zwieselalm. Shortly before 3:00 p.m., the weather at the scene improved and the heavy rain that had been falling until then subsided.

The crew of the emergency helicopter quickly discovered the son, who appeared uninjured and was in a fall-safe position. The search for his father was more difficult due to the steeply sloping and poorly visible terrain. It was not until 3:20 p.m. that he was located in a ravine about 100 meters below the via ferrata. Even from the helicopter, it was clear that he had suffered fatal injuries.For this reason, the first priority was to bring the son to safety before the weather deteriorated again. Despite difficult weather conditions – strong winds and light rain – the NAH crew was able to pick him up using a rope and fly him to the intermediate landing site on the Zwieselalm.There he was questioned by the alpine police officer about the circumstances of the accident. The NAH emergency doctor present recommended that he be examined in hospital due to the electric shocks he had suffered, and so he was flown to the hospital in Schwarzach by NAH Martin 1.

The Salzburg Air Police helicopter was requested to recover the body. The crew of the Libelle Oscar managed to reach the father on the rescue rope and bring him to the intermediate landing site on the Zwieselalm at around 16:40. The fallen man had numerous clearly visible massive injuries all over his body and in the head area, which is why death could be clearly determined even without a doctor present. The body was then flown down to the valley by the police helicopter and handed over to the mortician.

Follow-up surveys

The doctor on duty diagnosed a traumatic brain injury as the cause of death during the post-mortem examination carried out in the mortician’s mortuary. The father had died immediately as a result of the injuries sustained in the crash.
At 6:24 pm, the results of the investigation were reported by telephone to the journal service of the public prosecutor in Wels, who then released the body for burial.
In the meantime, the Bad Goisern 2 patrol was also able to locate other relatives of the father involved in the accident. His partner and another son were found by the patrol at the valley station of the Gosaukammbahn. They were informed of the death of their relative in the presence of the Red Cross crisis intervention team.

When the son was questioned, it was revealed that this had been his father’s first via ferrata tour. He was generally sporty, but preferred to travel by bike. He himself, on the other hand, had already climbed several via ferratas of this difficulty level (C/D) in Hungary, but this was also his first time in Austria.
Both owned or used complete and functional equipment, including climbing helmets, on the tour. They checked the weather before setting off and found out that, according to their information, rain was forecast for around 3pm. However, this had occurred more than an hour earlier, which is why they were still in the middle of the via ferrata and were surprised by the thunderstorm.

The weather forecast(www.bergfex.at) for Upper Austria predicted the following for the day of the accident: “From midday, the risk of thunderstorms will increase significantly from the southwest. The showers and thunderstorms will spread across the whole country during the afternoon, with heavy rain, squalls and hail to be expected locally […].”

The son was able to leave the hospital after a night under control. He was not diagnosed with any injuries or cardiac arrhythmia caused by the lightning strikes.

The alpine police officer who carried out the survey was unable to find any evidence of third-party negligence.