Dutch motorcyclist stranded on Austrian ski slope after navigation mishap

A Dutch motorcyclist in Austria encountered major problems on Friday due to wrong directions given by his navigation system. The route took him first over a mountain bike path and then over a ski slope. He was forced to spend the night in inclement weather, before he was eventually rescued unharmed on Saturday.

The 41-year-old Dutch man left Samnaun in the far east of Switzerland on Friday to drive to Ischgl, Austria, just on the other side of the border. As the crow flies, those locations are about 10 kilometers apart, but by road the drive is about 80 kilometers around the mountains. However, the man's navigation system offered a route over the mountains, and he decided to take it.

The route first went over a mountain bike path, up to an altitude of 2,800 meters. On the border mountain Palinkopf, the weather turned and the man became completely lost in the fog. He drove his motorcycle up a ski slope, where his wheel slipped and he fell. The motorcycle was so badly damaged that the man was unable to continue. Despite the bad weather, he decided to camp near his motorcycle.

When the Dutch man woke up on Saturday morning and the fog still hadn't lifted, he raised the alarm. As he turned out to be close to a cable car, mountain rescuers were able to find him fairly quickly. His motorcycle has been recovered. According to the police in the Austrian state of Tyrol, the motorcyclist was not injured, but it was clear that he was at the end of his rope.