Chronicle
The Bärenschützklamm gorge in Pernegg has been closed since the accident in the summer two years ago, when three people died in a rock fall. The gorge will remain closed this year, but there may be an opening in autumn 2023.
The Bärenschütz Gorge has existed since 1901. It has been an official Austrian natural monument since 1978 and is visited by 40,000 hikers every year. However, the gorge has been closed since 2020 – the reason is a rockfall that killed three people on July 8, 2020 and injured nine, some seriously – more on that in Two dead in a rock fall in Bärenschützklamm (8.7.2020).
Networks should bring more security
Since then, efforts have been made in the gorge to find a suitable safety concept. Again and again there were delays, geologists were exchanged, an initial concept didn’t last. Nothing has been built so far – more on that in Bärenschützklamm will probably remain closed in 2022 (12/14/2021). That should change with the new concept, says Gerhard Jantscher, board member of the Mixnitz Alpine Club section: “The security concept is now really optimal. Several networks are set up. We are in the process of finalizing a submission plan, so we may be able to start some work this fall.”
Financial losses for the region and the Alpine Club
They try to make the gorge as safe as possible, says Jantscher, but “climate change will show us a lot in the future. Nature is in motion. You can’t rule anything out.” – more on that in Rockfall: “Unpredictable natural event” (08/07/2020). For the region, the blocking of the tourism magnet means losses, for the Alpine Club, which works on a voluntary basis, financial impassability: “A rough estimate, low: 800,000 euros, which the Mixnitz section cannot handle. We are dependent on the help of public authorities.”
Visitors get impatient
In the best case, the gorge will open up in the second half of 2023. Hiking and school groups keep asking when the gorge will be accessible again, says Jantscher. He had to put her off, but that was not the only unpleasant thing: “The fence at the cashier’s hut was kicked in and a poster hung up accusing us of this misfortune and that we are greedy. That knocks you back again.” A civil case in relation to the accident is still ongoing.