Two winter sportsmen rescued in Salzburg

Twenty-four rescuers used a rope to move two stranded winter sportsmen to safety near Bad Gastein, Salzburg, yesterday (Thurs).The two men, a Latvian, 24, and a Swede, 23, who were working as seasonal labourers at establishments in the Gastein valley, decided at 1:30pm to go off-piste, one with skis and the other with a snowboard, down the northern slope of the Kreuzkogel.They got lost in fog and found themselves on the lip of a vertical rock wall 250 to 300 metres high. Unable to move on, they called rescuers at 4pm.Since it was impossible to use a helicopter because of high wind, 24 rescuers climbed up to their location and used a rope in the darkness to move them 160 metres over a frozen waterfall to safety.Neither man was injured.