On Sunday afternoon, two mushroom hunters from the United States found themselves in a dangerous situation in Maria Alm, located in Salzburg's Pinzgau region.
According to the Austrian newspaper Kurier, they had ventured into steep, rocky, and partially vertical terrain near the Napfetzer area, which sits at an elevation of 1,537 meters (5,043 ft) in the southern part of the Steinernes Meer.
The older man, aged 68, slipped and fell.
In what was later described as a miracle, he was caught by a tree just above a vertical rock face.
The Rescue Operation
His friend immediately called the mountain rescue service, but rescuers struggled to find them due to wrong coordinates, likely caused by the dense forest.
Rescue efforts were complicated as using a rope at the accident site was not possible.
Four mountain rescuers from Saalfelden were dropped off near the crash site by a police helicopter. They first secured the younger mushroom hunter before two rescuers abseiled down approximately 40 meters to reach the injured man.
The man was found crouched by a tree, directly in front of a vertical rock face. Bernd Tritscher, the operations manager from the Saalfelden mountain rescue service, described the man's survival as "nothing short of a miracle."
Despite the steep and dangerous terrain, the man had stopped in a very precarious spot.
After securing the injured man, the rescuers used a rope to lift him to a safer location where he could be picked up by the rescue helicopter. The man was then taken down to the valley for further medical attention.
