Image: EXPA/JFK (APA)
Large parts of Austria were warned of the danger of avalanches on Saturday.
According to the Vorarlberg rescue and fire brigade control center (RFL), the man in Kleinwalsertal had been sought since Friday evening. The mid-fifties was discovered dead under snow masses in the Walmendinger Alpe area in the late morning, apparently he had been caught by an avalanche.
Since the morning there have been constant reports of avalanches, but mostly there were no buried people, according to the Tyrolean control center. The search in St. Anton was ongoing, but was interrupted around 11 a.m. For the safety of the rescuers, the avalanche commission must first assess the situation, it is a very avalanche-prone area.
Already on Friday afternoon, two skiers on the Schmittenhöhe in Zell am See in Pinzgau released a 300 meter wide and 800 meter long avalanche. A 44-year-old father from Vienna and his 13-year-old son drove into an unsecured slope in open terrain with avalanche warning level 4 and triggered the snow slab. Both were not recorded, the Salzburg police reported.
The piste rescue located the two skiers in the Schmittengraben and brought them back safely to the piste. Father and son were unharmed. During the identity check, the Viennese holidaymaker was very unreasonable with regard to the alpine dangers and downplayed the situation. A report for the criminal assessment will be submitted to the Salzburg public prosecutor’s office. Six forces from the alpine police and mountain rescue service as well as the “Libelle Salzburg” helicopter were deployed.
Intense snowfall and wind have increased the risk of avalanches dangerously in Tyrol and Vorarlberg. Experts from the avalanche warning services from both federal states appealed to winter sports enthusiasts to exercise great caution. Inexperienced skiers should not leave the slopes at the moment. At higher altitudes, there was a widespread avalanche danger of level four on the five-part scale on Saturday.
The snow cover is unstable in all parts of the country, it said from both federal states. Up to 50 centimeters of fresh snow fell widely, and up to 40 centimeters more can be added over the course of Saturday. The fresh snow was heavily transported by the wind, this snowdrift accumulation could very easily be triggered at all exposures, even by individual winter sports enthusiasts. The experts warned that the danger spots are currently hardly recognizable even for experienced people. Spontaneous avalanches are to be expected, remote triggering could also occur. On steep grass slopes below 2,000 meters, slides and full-snow avalanches are possible.
The snowfall should slowly subside over the course of the weekend, but the conditions away from the slopes are still considered to be precarious, according to the experts. In Tyrol, a skier died in an avalanche in Ötztal on Friday, and a 15-year-old was swept away by an avalanche in the Kitzbühel district and was seriously injured. In Vorarlberg, two men were buried in Lech-Zürs, they escaped without injuries.
In the Ybbstal Alps in Lower Austria, the situation was also described as tense on Saturday. Hazardous areas are difficult to identify due to poor visibility and storms. According to the warning service, the avalanche danger remained high above the tree line (level 4), below it was considerable (level 3).
“In all exposures, slab and loose snow avalanches can release themselves from steep slopes. At high altitudes, these can sometimes break through to weak layers in the old snow and become large to very large avalanches,” reported the warning service. Spontaneous, wet loose snow and slab avalanches from steep forest and meadow terrain and from embankments are still to be expected at medium and low altitudes.
Up to one meter of fresh snow has fallen in the Ybbstal Alps since Tuesday afternoon. Due to drift snow, there are also larger snow depths in places.
On Sunday, the avalanche situation should slowly relax. The same applied to the Türnitz Alps, the Gippel-Göller and Rax-Schneeberg areas and the Semmering-change, where the danger above the tree line was still classified as significant on Saturday.
Source: Nachrichten
