Life-saving Rescue in St. Leonhard in Passeyr

Rescue of a life.

On July 11 of this year, Anton Neurauter went with Johann Königsrainer, both from St. Leonhard in Passeyr, into the woods toward Pfistrad to gather wood. They sent the collected wood, consisting of branches and brushwood, down the rock crevices, during which the branches often remained hanging on the crags. When several of them had accumulated on the cliffs, Anton Neurauter sought a path to reach these rocks and free the trapped branches. Using crampons and climbing irons, he indeed succeeded in finding a passable route, and called out to Königsrainer that one could walk there and that he should follow. Königsrainer had barely come within six paces of him when a very large rock dislodged above him, struck him squarely in the back near the neck, and hurled him some five Klafter down a rock face; in this fall, Königsrainer broke both arms, one of them twice. In this battered condition, Königsrainer hung suspended amid the cliffs with his head tilted forward on the branches that had been sent down shortly before. When Neurauter saw his unfortunate companion below him, he jumped down the same height of his own accord, seized Königsrainer from behind by his back with one hand, while digging one crampon into the rock and holding onto a protruding ledge with the other hand. Thus both hovered between heaven and earth on severed branches wedged into the crevices of the cliffs, not safe for a single moment from the branches giving way and plunging them into their grave in the chasm several towers deep below them. In this mortal fear they spent an hour and a half, until finally Leonhard Königsrainer and the so-called Holzer, both more than half an hour's distance away chopping wood in the opposite forest, heard the cries for help from Anton Neurauter and ran to the scene. Through the assistance of these two, the two victims were able to secure themselves somewhat better against falling; rescue, however, was not yet possible, as the two who had rushed to their aid could not hoist them up out of the ravine. Neurauter therefore asked Leonhard Königsrainer to summon more people, and at the same time to fetch a clergyman and a physician. Thereupon Jakob Gufler and Joseph Wilhelm arrived, as well as Dean Alois Stuefer from St. Leonhard and the surgeon Lucca. The latter was seized with dizziness, so that he did not dare approach the unfortunates at all. Jakob Gufler lowered himself into the crevices using ropes securely tied to trees, tied sheets around Johann Königsrainer's waist, and thus he and Anton Neurauter, holding onto the tied ropes, were hauled to safety above, and both were rescued. — This incident is made public with the note that Anton Neurauter has been granted the statutory reward for his deed, as noble as it was daring, and the other four named individuals, namely Leonhard Königsrainer, the so-called Holzer, Jakob Gufler, and Joseph Wilhelm, likewise received a reward from the government for their distinctly meritorious cooperation in this life-saving rescue.