Three of the most famous mountaineers are missing in the Canadian Rockies. The two Austrians David Lama, 28, and Hansjörg Auer, 35, as well as the American Jess Roskelley, 36, had embarked on a tour of Mount Andromeda. As the "Tiroler Zeitung" reports, among other things, they are said to have been buried by an avalanche.
After the missing persons was searched accordingly with rescue flights. So far, the search was unsuccessful. It should have been an avalanche of huge proportions, they say. According to the Canadian authorities, the search was stopped because of an increased avalanche danger. According to Canadian park supervision, it is assumed that the three climbers are no longer alive.
"The three are extremely experienced climbers - the world's best even"
Professional climber and extreme climber Stefan Glowacz shares this assessment: "After more than 15 minutes, the chances of survival are not very high," said Glowacz the SPIEGEL. After half an hour already about 70 percent were dead - the chances of survival depended on whether an air cave had formed and how big it was.
Anyway, it must have been a very big avalanche, Glowacz said. "The conditions must have been so unusual that it was not possible to assess the situation correctly even with the best experience," says the climbing expert. "The three are extremely experienced mountain climbers - the world's best even, they climb since early childhood and have something of an alpine instinct - they would never consciously take unnecessary risks."
According to the authorities, Lama, Auer and Roskelley wanted to climb Howse Peak in Banff National Park via a difficult ascent on the east side. After the athletes were reported missing, rescue workers examined the area from the air and found signs of several avalanches. In the scree accordingly mountaineering equipment was sighted.
On Wednesday, David Lama shared a photo from Canada on his Instagram profile and wrote: "When you live in one place, you often end up doing the same things over and over again, sometimes it takes a fresh look, to break out of routine. "
Check out this post on Instagram
When you're living in a place you often end up doing the same thing over and over again. Sometimes it takes a fresh view to break you out of the routine. In this case it was @jimwmorrison and @mikeyarno spotting a line I had almost forgotten about. We got out the next day to hit it and it turned out to be one of the better days of this winter. @thenorthface Photo by @christianpondella
A post shared by David Lama (@davidlama_official) on Apr 17, 2019 at 8:50 PDT
At the beginning of the year, Lama had succeeded in the first ascent of the notorious Sagzahn intersection in the Tyrolean Valser valley. A few months earlier he was the first person to conquer Lunag Ri, a 6895 meter high peak between Tibet and Nepal.
Video from Lebanon (2015): Lama's first ascent of a wall in the Baatara Gorge
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Lama also climbed the southeast ridge of the Cerro Torre in Argentina in free style, resulting in the movie "Cerro Torre", which was released in 2014. The SPIEGEL he said then that he had three years in a row to travel to Cerro Torre, only then did the ascent worked out. "I had to learn a lot, make mistakes and be patient."