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17. 08. 09. - 14:30

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17. 08. 09. - 14:30

Hiker falls off a cliff in the dark

By David Rogers

Rescuers found the body of a man on Saturday who had gone hiking in the dark Friday night and fallen off a 60-metre-high cliff in upper Styria.

The Styrian security directorate said today (Mon) Christian Sch., 42, from Wenigzell, had gone hiking with acquaintances on Friday in the upper Mürz valley in Styria.

The group had been hiking from the Brunnalm over the Niederalpl to Mariazell and was planning to overnight in the Herrenboden hut. Shortly before arriving there, however, the man and another member of the group turned around and went back to the Weißalm hut.

Christian Sch., however, left the Weißalm hut at 9pm after darkness had fallen and headed back in the direction of the Herrenboden hut.

When he failed to reappear the next morning, the group sounded the alarm. A massive search operation resulted in discovery of his body at 5pm at the base of the Hexenkessels rock wall.

The directorate said the man had evidently left a marked trail in the dark and veered off into a steep, impassable area, where he fell off the cliff to his death.

In another weekend accident in Austria’s mountains, a 77-year-old woman from Bad Eisenkappel in Carinthia’s Völkermarkt district was severely injured when she lost her balance while climbing in the Uschowa area and fell 70 metres.

Rescuers took her by helicopter to Klagenfurt emergency hospital for treatment.

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