A 66-year-old German tourist died on Wednesday after plunging roughly 300 metres from a ridge in South Tyrol, the latest in a series of fatal accidents on high-altitude paths in the region.
The man and a companion had strayed from the marked Pfunderer Höhenweg near Sterzing and were crossing a narrow rock ledge close to the Pretzkopf summit when the hiker lost his footing and fell into the Sengestal valley. The companion alerted emergency services, and a helicopter-dispatched emergency physician was only able to confirm the man's death at the scene.
The incident on the 2,243-metre peak underscores a pattern of deadly mishaps along exposed alpine routes in northern Italy, where authorities have recorded a growing number of fatalities among hikers venturing off marked trails.