;Resize=(1200,627)&impolicy=perceptual&quality=mediumHigh&hash=c9030710405992513c30d8bbffeb5289dec071760db2aad16881141996dcb5b4 "Avalanche accident: “I lay in the snow for hours with two shattered legs”")
Manuel Fuchs can remember quite clearly the day that changed his life forever. On the phone he says the date and time so quickly, it almost looks like a presentation he has memorized.
“23. February 2019, around 11 a.m., I was on a ski tour with my then girlfriend Franzi,” he says in an interview with FOCUS online. Manuel Fuchs is 41 years old, fitness economist, personal trainer and survivor of a severe avalanche accident.
To be more precise: The “avalanche accident in the Ammergau Alps”, as various media called it. At that time, several people were buried by a sliding snow avalanche near Schwangau on the border with Austria.
“Suddenly I saw a white wall racing towards me”
One of those affected could only be recovered dead, another was initially considered missing. Two weeks later, a hunter discovered the body of the 42-year-old German who had traveled from Cham.
Fuchs still sees the two men in front of him. “They were part of a group that overtook us on the descent,” he says. “Both were fathers, as I found out later.”
Fuchs will probably never forget the moment when the avalanche rolled towards him. “Franzi had walked a bit and had just strapped her splitboard back on. She was under a tree and was protected by it,” he says.
“Suddenly she screamed: Manu, avalanche! and all I could see was a white wall racing towards me.” Fuchs had previously imagined what he would do in such a situation.
After the avalanche accident: “I knew that my legs were shattered”
He would dodge, maybe try to sidesteer out of the avalanche. Or so he thought. The reality was different. “I threw myself on the ground and reflexively held my hands over my head,” says Fuchs.
When the avalanche rolled over him, burying him, the 41-year-old lost consciousness. Minutes later he woke up again, his face covered in blood. “I heard Franzi scream, that calmed me down,” says Fuchs. “That meant: It’s there, it’s alive.”
Fuchs remembers looking for his cell phone, finding it and making an emergency call, just like his girlfriend. He remembers getting stuck in the snow and trying to dig himself out, eventually succeeding.
He remembers that he had to wait more than two hours to be rescued because no one could get through to him so quickly. Media reports say that teams from the Austrian mountain rescue service and the Bavarian mountain rescue service were deployed.
There is also talk of helicopters with which the rescue workers were brought to the accident area. In any case, Fuchs urgently needed help. “I knew my legs were shattered,” he says. “The bone was sticking out of both lower legs.”
“Running is such a natural thing”
In Austria there were a total of 101 avalanche accidents in 2019, 22 people died. This is the result of surveys by the alpine police, which the “Statista” portal has published.
According to the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), there were a total of 36 fatal avalanche accidents in the mountain regions of Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the 2018/19 winter season.
According to a report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, when the sliding snow avalanche that carried Fuchs rolled down, the Bavarian Alps had a warning level of two out of five. This means: moderate danger, an avalanche can actually only be released on particularly steep slopes and with heavy loads.
Fuchs and his girlfriend had also completed avalanche training, so they were well prepared. The personal trainer learned on February 23, 2019 that you can’t prepare for some things.
Fuchs is glad he didn’t feel any pain as he lay there in the middle of the snow with two of his legs shattered. “The rescue workers took me to the accident clinic in Murnau, which journalists ironically described as a ‘feast for the doctors’. I was there for a month, had a number of surgeries,” he says.
The 41-year-old could no longer walk after the accident, his injuries were too serious. “Running is actually something that we take for granted,” says Fuchs. “When you can’t do it anymore, you only realize what’s missing.”
Fuchs wanted to run again: “I practiced every day”
It was clear to the personal trainer that he would not accept that. That he would do anything to get back on his feet. Fuchs spent three months in rehabilitation at the Enzensberg specialist clinic in Hopfen am See.
“I practiced every day. Trained every day. In the beginning it had nothing to do with running, I lacked strength and coordination,” he says. “It didn’t look like walking again until about a year later.”
Anyone who listens to the athlete quickly gets the impression that he is a stubborn, maybe even stubborn person.
He says it helped him through the hardest time of his life. “I really wanted to be able to walk again, to do sports again. That was my goal. And I was relentless and persistent in trying to achieve it.”
Today Fuchs works again as a personal trainer, sometimes he also gives lectures about what he has experienced. His clients include people who want to work on their health, but also those who themselves suffer from the consequences of accidents or illnesses.
“I think I’m authentic to them, I motivate them to give everything to get a better quality of life again. You can see from me that this is possible.”
Fuchs sees the avalanche accident as an opportunity
The 41-year-old is also involved in social projects, such as “Villa K”. This is a house on Lake Starnberg where socially disadvantaged children and young people, single parents and young activists can find accommodation.
And Fuchs is also committed to “Pure Water for Generations” (PWFG). The project stands for clean water and nature conservation. His own accident motivated the athlete to do more for others. At least that’s how he tells it.
But despite all the optimism and determination, one question remains. How does it feel to survive an avalanche accident that killed two other people?
“I am incredibly sorry for the two fathers who died, their relatives. I have no children myself,” says Fuchs. “But I am also grateful and see my fate as an opportunity. I can still do a lot of good, and I want to do that too.”
“Today I would rather listen to my gut feeling”
February 23, 2019 is burned into his memory. It’s the day Fuchs’ life changed forever. If he could travel back today, if he could relive that February 23rd, he would do one thing differently.
“I would rather listen to my gut feeling. I would have turned around with my girlfriend a lot more,” he says. As an athlete, it’s hard to go home without having accomplished something. “You first discuss and weigh things up.”
Fuchs believes that this stubbornness did him harm in the end. “On the other hand, you never know what’s going to happen. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time. And you can’t turn back time.”
Today the 41-year-old is doing sports again, mountain biking and surfing. Even if he still has trouble walking. “Sometimes I really have to concentrate,” he says. “But I’m probably the only one who notices that now.”