Brit, 42, falls to his death while clambering across metal ladder 300ft up Austrian mountain

A BRITISH climber has plunged more than 300ft to his death while scaling a ladder on an picturesque Austrian mountain.

The unnamed 42 year old fell off the end of the ladder in the Dachstein Mountains, an area popular with Instagrammers.

Alamy

The horror accident happened near Salzburg[/caption]

Two helicopter crews rushed to the scene but the man was unable to be saved after the horrific fall.

The ladder, run by Inter-sport, is referred to as Via-Ferrata – Italian for “iron way” – and many climbers refer to it as the “stairway to heaven”.

The Brit was reportedly scaling the ladder alone, and third-party negligence has been ruled out.

Rescuers retrieved his body from the gully beneath the ladder, as a spokesperson stressed the incident is an “accident”.

The iron path has more than 3500 posts tagged, and is popular with extreme thrill seekers.

In 2020, an extreme athlete was pictured balancing on the ladder with no harness.