By Thomas Gautier
He drank from waterholes to survive!
The hiker Norbert J. (86) from Speyer (Rhineland-Palatinate) survived four days in the Alps above Garmisch. Without food, without water!
The man had been missing since September 7th. According to the police, he was in Garmisch-Partenkirchen to climb the Alpspitze (2,628 meters). On Sunday he was found exhausted in the Alpspitz area by a mountain biker after four days.
The pensioner left Speyer on the evening of September 6th. According to the police, Norbert J. was still in contact with his wife that day. He told her on the phone that he wanted to spend the night on the mountain and descend the day after. From then on there was no more contact.
2628 meters high: The Alpspitze above Garmisch-Partenkirchen Photo: picture alliance/Wagner
The mountain rescue service and alpine police officers searched for the man on foot and from the air for several days – including a public search.
▶︎ On Sunday afternoon, a cyclist found Norbert J. “exhausted but safe” next to a forest road below the Stuibenhütte, according to the police.
Norbert J. “had come across a forest road below the Stuibenhütte after four days of wandering around in the forest. The missing person lay down there, very exhausted, in the hope of being found by other hikers.”
According to the police, Norbert J. “had no food with him and drank from waterholes in the forest for the last few days”. And survived!
The first call was to his wife
The Austrian mountain biker saw him around 3:30 p.m. He made an emergency call. The police: “The missing man then immediately called his desperately waiting wife to tell her that he was alive. He was rescued by the mountain rescue team and then taken to hospital for examination.”
Alpine police officers told Norbert J. that he had spent the days and nights since Wednesday in the Alpspitz area. Since he had lost his mobile phone in the meantime, he could no longer get help.