An Irishman with poor eyesight almost froze to death after he was apparently forgotten by the rest of his ski group and could not see the way home.
The 29-year-old from Dublin, who also has bad hearing, was on a luxury skiing holiday in Kitzbuehel in Tyrol but his holiday ended in hospital after he endured freezing temperatures for ten hours.
The man had signed up for lessons at a ski school and was being taken up the mountainside on a chairlift when one of his skis fell off.
Reaching the peak, the ski instructor left the partially sighted man with two other members of the group before going to find the lost ski.
But, when the instructor did not return, the two skiers caring for the man decided to join the search for the ski.
According to the Innsbruck police, none of the group returned up the mountainside to help the stranded man and had gone back to their hotels.
The forgotten man was left wandering the slopes unable to make his own way down or to ask for help because of his hearing difficulties.
Rescue teams were alerted at 11.30 p.m. after hotel staff noticed he had still not come back. A 41-man rescue team from Austria and Bavaria in Germany were able to locate the half-frozen man 1,470 metres up the Brunnalm Mountains.
He was taken to the Kitzbuehel Hospital where doctors said he was lucky to still be alive. Current temperatures on Austria's mountains at night plunge to as low as minus 20 degrees.
PA