?mysterian?
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Condolences to Jeff's family and friends. Thanks to everyone posting updates and information.
Presumed Located GERMANY - Jeff Freiheit, 32, Canadian hiker missing in Alps, Bad Tölz, 2 Aug 2018
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ZaZara
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https://www.ovb-online.de/bayern/trauriges-ende-vermisster-jeff-freiheit-10173335.html
The 32-year-old wanted to hike on the long-distance hiking trail of his dreams from Munich to Venice. On August 2, he recorded a short video for his family in front of the Brauneck Panorama Restaurant. There hadn' been a trace of him since. The mountain rescue service and police searched for him for days. Since mid-August, volunteers had taken over the search. Jeff Freiheit was also being searched for in the area where the body was found - even by drone and with the help of a helicopter. But even the dogs had not struck there.
Even when the aerial photo material was looked over again, there was no trace of him. "The man was difficult to spot," explains Sylvia Frei, spokeswoman for the Lenggries mountain rescue service (Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district). "The green backpack and his green clothes were barely visible even from a few meters away."
BBM
The 32-year-old wanted to hike on the long-distance hiking trail of his dreams from Munich to Venice. On August 2, he recorded a short video for his family in front of the Brauneck Panorama Restaurant. There hadn' been a trace of him since. The mountain rescue service and police searched for him for days. Since mid-August, volunteers had taken over the search. Jeff Freiheit was also being searched for in the area where the body was found - even by drone and with the help of a helicopter. But even the dogs had not struck there.
Even when the aerial photo material was looked over again, there was no trace of him. "The man was difficult to spot," explains Sylvia Frei, spokeswoman for the Lenggries mountain rescue service (Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district). "The green backpack and his green clothes were barely visible even from a few meters away."
BBM
ZaZara
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Manitoba hiker missing in German Alps found dead, family confirms | CBC News
In a Skype interview, Rich Manfield [ Alpine Man ] said any hike in the Alpine region is inherently dangerous, but that the area where Freiheit was found is sometimes underestimated as the mountains are smaller.
"But they are certainly very serious. And I think that ridge line, for me as a rock climber, is pretty precarious. I've been on it once and found it quite uncomfortable," he said. "It just takes one small slip, and if you can't recover from that slip, you're in grave trouble."
(...)
Manfield said it was an experienced wilderness expert Susanne Williams, who is originally from Amsterdam but lives in Jachenau, who encouraged everyone to double back to the Brauneck region, which is where Freiheit was last seen on social media. He'd posted a video of himself to Instagram after climbing a hill in record time — rather than taking the cable car — to the Brauneck Panorama restaurant.
The ridge line above the spot Freiheit was found is no more than three kilometres from the area where the video was taken, according to Manfield.
BBM
A sad, sad map with the trail from the Brauneck restaurant to the Achselköpfe in yellow and then the small red marker that reads Jeff found.
In a Skype interview, Rich Manfield [ Alpine Man ] said any hike in the Alpine region is inherently dangerous, but that the area where Freiheit was found is sometimes underestimated as the mountains are smaller.
"But they are certainly very serious. And I think that ridge line, for me as a rock climber, is pretty precarious. I've been on it once and found it quite uncomfortable," he said. "It just takes one small slip, and if you can't recover from that slip, you're in grave trouble."
(...)
Manfield said it was an experienced wilderness expert Susanne Williams, who is originally from Amsterdam but lives in Jachenau, who encouraged everyone to double back to the Brauneck region, which is where Freiheit was last seen on social media. He'd posted a video of himself to Instagram after climbing a hill in record time — rather than taking the cable car — to the Brauneck Panorama restaurant.
The ridge line above the spot Freiheit was found is no more than three kilometres from the area where the video was taken, according to Manfield.
BBM
A sad, sad map with the trail from the Brauneck restaurant to the Achselköpfe in yellow and then the small red marker that reads Jeff found.
Elainera
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RIP Jeff! His mother is a very strong woman.
My condolences to Jeff's family.
This picture seems to show approximately where he fell? That's quite a drop! Probably broke his neck and died instantly. Fly high Jeff!
My condolences to Jeff's family.
Vermisster Kanadier tot am Brauneck aufgefunden
Missing Canadian found dead at Brauneck
Fears and hopes turn into certainty for relatives and helpers on Saturday: Jeff Freiheit is dead. The 32-year-old Canadian had been missing at Brauneck for more than three weeks. On Saturday afternoon, a group of volunteers discovered the young man's body at the southern foot of Latschenkopf and the first Achselkopf in the undergrowth. The Canadian must have crashed off the path down a high cliff.
Freiheit had flown from overseas to Munich in order to hike on the so-called Traumpfad to Venice. On August 2, the young man had posted a selfie in front of the panorama restaurant near the Brauneck mountain railway station on the Instagram network. Afterwards, his trail got lost. Police and mountain rescue services interrupted the official search for missing persons less than a week ago. But private individuals had set up the Facebook group "Volunteers searching for Jeff Freiheit". They continued to comb the area to find Freiheit.
Bad weather is forecast for Saturday. The sky is overcast. But the high clouds leave the view in the area of Brauneck and Benediktenwand free. It doesn't start raining until about 4 pm. A group of twelve volunteers - including the mother of the lost Canadian - want to take advantage of this dry weather spell. They leave the valley early in the morning.
Around 9.30 am they reach the Vordere Scharnitz-Alm at about 1400 m above sea level south of the Benediktenwand. In the cauldron of Latschen- und Achselkopf a little higher up, they discuss with each other one and a half hours later. Around 11.36 a.m. they stumble upon shoes and rucksacks and finally upon the corpse of Freiheit hidden in the undergrowth. As wilderness leader Susanne Williams describes, the group immediately contacted the rescue workers. The British woman had helped coordinate the private search for the missing Canadian.
Williams (pictured) has lived in Jachenau for eight years. She has learned to hike and climb in Great Britain and elsewhere. This also explains her motivation to join in the search for the crashed Canadian. "There I learned that every mountaineer is also a helper," she says. She also knows the area of Benediktenwand and Brauneck. However, the search for missing persons was only possible thanks to the many supporters - by Saturday 505 people had registered in the "Volunteers searching for Jeff Freiheit" group.
Volunteers such as the Sauerlach electrical engineer Peter Huck, who also helped on Saturday, had combed the area between the Brauneck and the Austrian Vorderriß in the Karwendel for days in their free time. They distributed flyers with the missing persons report and talked to alpine dairy farmers and alpine dairymen. On behalf of the relatives, the Wolfratshausen company Air Bavarian had organized helicopters and drone flights.
Freiheit had managed to reach the Brauneck on August 2. With a mountain guide he had already climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and Everest Base Camp in the Himalayas. The "Dream Trail" was to become his first mountain adventure on his own. Freiheit wanted to stay overnight in the Tutzinger Hütte on the north side of the Benediktenwand. In Vorderriß the young long-distance hiker had booked a hotel room in advance. He hadn't arrived at either of the two places. Because contact with his family was also broken off, the relatives had reported him missing. But they assumed the young man was in Austria.
The emergency forces in the southern district of Tölz were not called in until about ten days later. More than 100 members of the mountain rescue service and police searched unsuccessfully for the Canadian for a long time. They had flown over the area between Brauneck and Vorderriß with helicopters and drones. They were out with search dogs, even in the area where now the dead Jeff Freiheit was found.
Christoph Brenninger, stand-by manager of the Lenggrieser mountain rescue service, explains that this is possible because of the extensive area traversed by mountain pines and gorges. If a person falls under scrub, he can hardly be spotted without clear indications or traces. In the specific case, it was problematic that the local forces were not called in until about ten days after the Canadian disappeared. The more days passed, the harder it was for dogs to find a missing person, especially in the hot weather of the past weeks. If the wind is unfavourable, the dogs are sometimes unable to detect a missing person even from relatively close range, according to Brenninger.
According to him, the members of the Lenggries mountain rescue service were alerted around 11.40 a.m. on Saturday. Six emergency forces were on the mountain, including two from the Bavarian mountain rescue service's crisis intervention service. In the afternoon, a police helicopter landed to evacuate the dead Canadian.
A few days ago Jeff Freiheit's wife and mother had travelled from the Canadian province of Manitoba to the region. From the very beginning, members of the Crisis Intervention Service had looked after both women. On Saturday, however, the wife was already on a plane back to Canada. The mother and a friend of Jeff Freiheit, who had also arrived, participated in the search for volunteers on this day. Wilderness guide Susanne Williams reports that her mother took in her son's discovery with great composure. "She was relieved it was over." The fact that she had been at the rescue may even make it easier to find her own peace of mind."
BBM
This picture seems to show approximately where he fell? That's quite a drop! Probably broke his neck and died instantly. Fly high Jeff!
PinkPrincessPoop
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It's the area of Achselköpfe - if you look that up, you can see what he was dealing with. Crazy stuff. Not sure if he made it that far, but even just the general area seems treacherous.
Elainera
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Yes pretty scary just to look at.
In the photo they seem to be carrying him to the helicopter, that's why I thought it must be the area where he fell.
Dora in the field
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What a sad ending... RIP Jeff.
cybervampira
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ZaZara
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The search for Jeff Freiheit brought them together: Volunteers who became friends
The Canadian hiker Jeff Freiheit disappeared on August 2 at Brauneck. In the weeks that followed, dozens of volunteers supported his family. What motivates people to help complete strangers? A story about searching and finding, a story full of love and about people who were willing to give something without expecting anything in return.
Lenggries- Jeff Freiheit loved movies. Especially those with Jack Nicholson. He knew whole passages by heart. He taught children, took special care of the weaker ones and made sure that nobody was excluded. He had a cat called Sugar. His style of dress was sometimes a bit fancy, but he didn't care if anyone grinned about it. Jeff was very attached to his mom from an early age. He loved his wife Selena. She was 19 and he was 23 when he first asked her out for a date. He liked to travel. For this year he had planned a special adventure: The crossing of the Alps on the Dream Trail Munich-Venice. The 32-year-old had already conquered Kilimanjaro and reached Mount Everest base camp. In both adventures he was accompanied by a guide. This time he set off alone.
None of this was known to the people here about Jeff Freiheit when the Canadian's trail was lost at Brauneck on August 2. His mother Kathy would only tell some of these little details about her son much later. Jeff was already dead, crashed down from the south side of the Achselköpfe. He was found there on August 25th - by his mother, his best friend Adam and volunteers. Although Freiheit was a complete stranger, hundreds of people decided to help the family find the 32-year-old in the days following his disappearance.
The support was very different. Some of them phoned the huts to find out if anyone had seen the Canadian. Others hung up search posters between here and Venice or distributed the search appeal on social networks. Those who had time, like Monika Brandhofer from Lenggries, took over driving services to bring Selena and Kathy Freiheit to the Jachenau, for example. Or, like Ben Walz from Penzberg, who teaches English at the Tölzer Gymnasium, translated communication with the authorities.
The actions were coordinated by the Facebook group "Volunteers searching for Jeff Freiheit", founded by his sister Amanda and her husband Nick Devigne together with Rich Manfield. Manfield later made small English-language videos to update friends in Canada who were following the missing persons search.
When the mountain rescue couldn't search any more, because there was simply no further reference to the whereabouts of the 32-year-old, the "volunteers" jumped in. "I thought it was unacceptable for someone to be missed here and for us not to look for him," says Martina Lachmuth from Penzberg, explaining her motivation. The 38-year-old brought structure into the search together with the Jachenauer wilderness guide Susanne Williams (48), while Oliver Landolt (48) from Munich together with his son Nicolas and Jeff's friend Carter Gregory transferred all areas that had already been searched onto a map.
Through the social media Trevor McConnell (25) and Ashley Lowe (23) came across the search. Both come from Toronto, but currently live in Munich. "I thought since I was Canadian. I should do something," says Lowe. One Saturday they took off like Kayla Kuefler (24) from Edmonton and searched in the area of the Tutzinger Hütte.
Anne Fuchs (37) also wanted to do something. "It can't be that someone gets lost in my living room," the woman from Bad Tölz thought and drove to Brauneck on the morning of August 25. Just like Wolfgang Haider (54) from Otterfing, Allyson Chaple (48) from Jachenau, Peter Huck (51) from Sauerlach, Klaus Lechner (47) from Dietramszell and Marion Müller (43) from Waakirch, she was in the group that finally found Jeff Freiheit. For Lechner, help was self-evident. "If it was my child, I would want someone to take care of him too."
One of the first to actively search was Robin Simmerle. Even at night he was still illuminating mountain slopes at Vorderriß - hoping for a reflection and an indication of the Canadian's whereabouts. "I've been lost so often," says the 44-year-old from Kleinwalsertal. That's why he knows what it's like to need help. Susanne Williams also knows that. "Anyone who has ever been rescued himself knows that he will never be able to make up for it with his own rescuers. But I see it as an obligation to give back some of the help you have experienced yourself." But with Simmerle it may also be a bit in his genes. "My grandfather has founded a mountain rescue service," he says.
Peter Huck started the search at the same time as him. The 51-year-old cycled or hiked the routes that Jeff Freiheit could have taken. But it wasn't that selfless, he argues. "I would have gone hiking anyway. And it doesn't matter whether I do it somewhere else or on the Brauneck and perhaps give luck a helping hand. Wolfgang Haider puts it in a similar way: "Since I travel a lot in the mountains and live in the region anyway, it was normal for me to try to help. Of course, says Huck, the whole thing had become a matter close to his heart once again after he had personally met Jeff's wife and mother for the first time. "When it comes to people you've ever held in your arms, it's different, of course." Johanna Bartos has a similar view. "I am a mother of two sons myself. I took that personally," the 54-year-old from Munich says. Like Roland Konopac (53) from Neubiberg, she belongs to the Munich Mountain Rescue Service, whose area of operation also includes Brauneck. For Konopac, giving up was never an option: "I said I'd turn over every mountain pine and look into every crack."
Nevertheless, in the end it was probably a coincidence or perhaps fate that Kathy Freiheit first discovered her son's shoe and then his backpack - only minutes after the volunteers had set out to search on that cloudy Saturday. "I was at the same spot on the Wednesday before, only five metres away - and I didn't see him," says Robin Simmerle. That's why any criticism of the mountain rescue service is completely unfounded. "There was also nothing on the videos I made of the area," adds Susanne Williams. The green backpack looked like leaves from above, describes Marion Müller. "It was indistinguishable from its surroundings.
The moment when it was clear that they had actually found Jeff, "can hardly be described," Klaus Lechner says. "Disappointment, relief" - everything was there. Of course, at some point we knew that we wouldn't be able to find him alive, Anne Fuchs adds. But that didn't change the unconditional determination. "It was important to me that his family could take him home with them."
The search has bonded many of the volunteers together. "We are a clan," says Susanne Williams. "A troop of hearts" - and that includes all the helpers - from the seekers to the mountain railway operator, the police and the mountain rescue service to the alpine farmers who allowed the car to drive up. Many of the group exchanged numbers. "We will definitely go hiking together again," Anne Fuchs says.
The fact that no one wants to break up the Facebook group also shows that the search for and fate of Freiheit has had a lasting effect on many people. The group now has over 500 members. Many spoke out in favour of letting the group continue - in memory of the 32-year-old, but also as a reminder of this extraordinary support action and the cohesion that has developed here. Nick Devigne therefore only renamed it: The "Volunteers" have now become the "Friends of Jeff Freiheit".
A few days ago Kathy Freiheit brought her son home. He was buried in Brandon on Saturday. Jeff Freiheit leaves behind a family in Canada that loves him - and many friends in Upper Bavaria. Friends who have never met him, but who will never forget him.
BBM
The Canadian hiker Jeff Freiheit disappeared on August 2 at Brauneck. In the weeks that followed, dozens of volunteers supported his family. What motivates people to help complete strangers? A story about searching and finding, a story full of love and about people who were willing to give something without expecting anything in return.
Lenggries- Jeff Freiheit loved movies. Especially those with Jack Nicholson. He knew whole passages by heart. He taught children, took special care of the weaker ones and made sure that nobody was excluded. He had a cat called Sugar. His style of dress was sometimes a bit fancy, but he didn't care if anyone grinned about it. Jeff was very attached to his mom from an early age. He loved his wife Selena. She was 19 and he was 23 when he first asked her out for a date. He liked to travel. For this year he had planned a special adventure: The crossing of the Alps on the Dream Trail Munich-Venice. The 32-year-old had already conquered Kilimanjaro and reached Mount Everest base camp. In both adventures he was accompanied by a guide. This time he set off alone.
None of this was known to the people here about Jeff Freiheit when the Canadian's trail was lost at Brauneck on August 2. His mother Kathy would only tell some of these little details about her son much later. Jeff was already dead, crashed down from the south side of the Achselköpfe. He was found there on August 25th - by his mother, his best friend Adam and volunteers. Although Freiheit was a complete stranger, hundreds of people decided to help the family find the 32-year-old in the days following his disappearance.
The support was very different. Some of them phoned the huts to find out if anyone had seen the Canadian. Others hung up search posters between here and Venice or distributed the search appeal on social networks. Those who had time, like Monika Brandhofer from Lenggries, took over driving services to bring Selena and Kathy Freiheit to the Jachenau, for example. Or, like Ben Walz from Penzberg, who teaches English at the Tölzer Gymnasium, translated communication with the authorities.
The actions were coordinated by the Facebook group "Volunteers searching for Jeff Freiheit", founded by his sister Amanda and her husband Nick Devigne together with Rich Manfield. Manfield later made small English-language videos to update friends in Canada who were following the missing persons search.
When the mountain rescue couldn't search any more, because there was simply no further reference to the whereabouts of the 32-year-old, the "volunteers" jumped in. "I thought it was unacceptable for someone to be missed here and for us not to look for him," says Martina Lachmuth from Penzberg, explaining her motivation. The 38-year-old brought structure into the search together with the Jachenauer wilderness guide Susanne Williams (48), while Oliver Landolt (48) from Munich together with his son Nicolas and Jeff's friend Carter Gregory transferred all areas that had already been searched onto a map.
Through the social media Trevor McConnell (25) and Ashley Lowe (23) came across the search. Both come from Toronto, but currently live in Munich. "I thought since I was Canadian. I should do something," says Lowe. One Saturday they took off like Kayla Kuefler (24) from Edmonton and searched in the area of the Tutzinger Hütte.
Anne Fuchs (37) also wanted to do something. "It can't be that someone gets lost in my living room," the woman from Bad Tölz thought and drove to Brauneck on the morning of August 25. Just like Wolfgang Haider (54) from Otterfing, Allyson Chaple (48) from Jachenau, Peter Huck (51) from Sauerlach, Klaus Lechner (47) from Dietramszell and Marion Müller (43) from Waakirch, she was in the group that finally found Jeff Freiheit. For Lechner, help was self-evident. "If it was my child, I would want someone to take care of him too."
One of the first to actively search was Robin Simmerle. Even at night he was still illuminating mountain slopes at Vorderriß - hoping for a reflection and an indication of the Canadian's whereabouts. "I've been lost so often," says the 44-year-old from Kleinwalsertal. That's why he knows what it's like to need help. Susanne Williams also knows that. "Anyone who has ever been rescued himself knows that he will never be able to make up for it with his own rescuers. But I see it as an obligation to give back some of the help you have experienced yourself." But with Simmerle it may also be a bit in his genes. "My grandfather has founded a mountain rescue service," he says.
Peter Huck started the search at the same time as him. The 51-year-old cycled or hiked the routes that Jeff Freiheit could have taken. But it wasn't that selfless, he argues. "I would have gone hiking anyway. And it doesn't matter whether I do it somewhere else or on the Brauneck and perhaps give luck a helping hand. Wolfgang Haider puts it in a similar way: "Since I travel a lot in the mountains and live in the region anyway, it was normal for me to try to help. Of course, says Huck, the whole thing had become a matter close to his heart once again after he had personally met Jeff's wife and mother for the first time. "When it comes to people you've ever held in your arms, it's different, of course." Johanna Bartos has a similar view. "I am a mother of two sons myself. I took that personally," the 54-year-old from Munich says. Like Roland Konopac (53) from Neubiberg, she belongs to the Munich Mountain Rescue Service, whose area of operation also includes Brauneck. For Konopac, giving up was never an option: "I said I'd turn over every mountain pine and look into every crack."
Nevertheless, in the end it was probably a coincidence or perhaps fate that Kathy Freiheit first discovered her son's shoe and then his backpack - only minutes after the volunteers had set out to search on that cloudy Saturday. "I was at the same spot on the Wednesday before, only five metres away - and I didn't see him," says Robin Simmerle. That's why any criticism of the mountain rescue service is completely unfounded. "There was also nothing on the videos I made of the area," adds Susanne Williams. The green backpack looked like leaves from above, describes Marion Müller. "It was indistinguishable from its surroundings.
The moment when it was clear that they had actually found Jeff, "can hardly be described," Klaus Lechner says. "Disappointment, relief" - everything was there. Of course, at some point we knew that we wouldn't be able to find him alive, Anne Fuchs adds. But that didn't change the unconditional determination. "It was important to me that his family could take him home with them."
The search has bonded many of the volunteers together. "We are a clan," says Susanne Williams. "A troop of hearts" - and that includes all the helpers - from the seekers to the mountain railway operator, the police and the mountain rescue service to the alpine farmers who allowed the car to drive up. Many of the group exchanged numbers. "We will definitely go hiking together again," Anne Fuchs says.
The fact that no one wants to break up the Facebook group also shows that the search for and fate of Freiheit has had a lasting effect on many people. The group now has over 500 members. Many spoke out in favour of letting the group continue - in memory of the 32-year-old, but also as a reminder of this extraordinary support action and the cohesion that has developed here. Nick Devigne therefore only renamed it: The "Volunteers" have now become the "Friends of Jeff Freiheit".
A few days ago Kathy Freiheit brought her son home. He was buried in Brandon on Saturday. Jeff Freiheit leaves behind a family in Canada that loves him - and many friends in Upper Bavaria. Friends who have never met him, but who will never forget him.
BBM