Tragedy in the Alps: Czech climber slips off a cliff and pulls her partner down with her — she dies, he survives

A Czech mountaineer died in the Austrian Alps on Saturday after slipping and falling with her climbing partner into a glacial crevasse roughly 140 metres deep while descending Wildspitze mountain. Police say the woman died at the scene, while the man suffered severe injuries but survived.

According to the Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung, citing police reports, the two climbers were descending from Wildspitze's northern summit along the northwest ridge at around 11:35 a.m. At an altitude of 3,712 metres, the pair paused briefly: the woman decided to take off her jacket as the temperature had warmed up, while the man adjusted the crampons on his boots. Both were roped together for safety.

For reasons that remain unclear, the woman suddenly lost her balance and slipped on Wildspitze's steep northern slope, dragging her partner down with her. The pair fell roughly 140 metres before becoming lodged in a glacial crevasse.

Despite his serious injuries, the man managed to climb out of the crevasse on his own. "He called loudly for help, which attracted the attention of other climbers nearby, and a rescue operation was launched immediately," police said.

A rescue helicopter first flew the injured man to the nearby Taschachhaus mountain hut, where he received first aid, before he was transferred to a hospital in Zams. Help came too late for the woman — a doctor could only confirm her death at the scene. The Innsbruck prosecutor's office has ordered an autopsy.

The incident marks yet another tragic episode in what has become a "black" weekend for accidents in Austria. Earlier, on Sunday, a 47-year-old Czech woman died near Hinterstoder in Upper Austria. Rescuers began searching for her after she failed to check in at a mountain hut where she had booked a bed for the night, and her sister was unable to reach her by phone. A police helicopter joined the search and its crew eventually spotted her body in a rocky ravine below a hiking trail.

Another tragedy occurred on Saturday on the A9 motorway near the Lebring exit, where a 50-year-old Czech man crashed while driving with his family. He died from his injuries on Saturday evening. His wife, three years his junior, and their 18-year-old daughter were injured and taken to a hospital in Graz.

Police say the crash happened at around 6:30 a.m., when the car left the road for reasons still under investigation and slammed into a guardrail at high speed. The family had been travelling from the Spielfeld border crossing on the Austrian-Slovenian border toward Graz.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz