A TOURIST froze to death in brutal conditions at a popular waterfall after mysteriously taking a detour on his way home from a night out.
The 55-year-old Danish man was out in the centre of Bad Gastein, a ski town in the Gastein Valley of Austria, on Saturday night when tragedy struck.
Friends said he was last seen at around 10pm, but when they got back to the accommodation he was not there.
Raising the alarm, they alerted police and joined a desperate search for the missing Dane.
A police helicopter “Libelle” circled the town, but he could not be found.
The following morning, the Bad Gastein mountain rescue team was officially called in.
Twenty rescue personnel set out, divided the town into search sectors, and scoured the difficult terrain around the Gasteiner Ache river.
Shortly before 2pm, the mans lifeless body was found in the snow at the edge of the streambed, just steps away from the steep drop of the waterfall.
There was no hope of saving him, authorities said.
No one knows why the man did not take the direct route back to his accommodation, or why he headed for the Gasteiner Ache waterfall.
Based on the evidence at the scene, cops believe the man had been walking along a path beside the Ache river and slipped into the streambed.
Police do not believe his death to be suspicious. An autopsy will be performed in due course.
Mountain rescue received seven other call-outs that day due to the freezing conditions.
District leader Gerhard Kremser said: “These included avalanches , injured off-piste skiers, stranded individuals in alpine terrain, and a large-scale search operation with a tragic, fatal outcome.”
He described it as one of the most intense days of the winter season in Pongau.
And, he added the Gastein incident was a result of the areas treacherous conditions due to its steepness and proximity to water.
This comes just days after a 53-year-old skier was found dead inside a mountain cable car at the Val Cenis ski resort in Savoie, southeastern France.
The tourist is believed to have boarded the lift by himself on the afternoon of January 6.
But when the gondola reached the mountain peak he was found unconscious by the horrified driver.
Despite the rapid response from emergency services and local police, the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
It is believed the holidaymaker suffered a heart attack after getting onto the lift.
And in another shocking incident, a skier was discovered buried beneath an avalanche in Switzerland.
Shocking footage showed the terrifying scene from the point of view of Matteo Zilla as he skied across a seemingly calm mountainside in Engelberg.
The 37-year-old creative director is suddenly stopped in his tracks when he sees a single arm poking out from the deep snow.
Against the odds, the skier was pulled out alive and uninjured.
At least 17 people have been killed by avalanches in the past month, as authorities issue warnings of “extreme risk” conditions.
