Avalanche tore snow plow in East Tyrol – driver dead

More details about the avalanche in East Tyrol were not known at first, the snow slab was discovered in the early hours of the morning. According to the control center, the mountain rescue service was called in at around 3:30 a.m.

To the misfortune St Anton came on Saturday when a 29-year-old ski guide with two 33 and 64-year-old guests wanted to ski down the “Törli” variant run in the open ski area at around 10.30 a.m. According to the police, a slab of snow came loose in a gully and swept away the 29-year-old and the 33-year-old Austrian guest. Both were completely buried. The 64-year-old was not recorded. Because of the high risk of avalanches, the search for the men had been interrupted, and even after blasting, the situation in the afternoon was classified as too dangerous.

Also missing is a 62-year-old Austrian who returned from a ski tour on Saturday High Aifnerspitze did not return. When the man’s dog came home alone around 1:30 p.m., relatives alerted the emergency services. They found a fresh avalanche in the area in question, and it is assumed that the man was hit by it. A first search was unsuccessful, a ground search was not possible because of the acute danger of avalanches in the steep and extensive terrain. The search operation was therefore interrupted around 5:30 p.m.

In Tyrol and Vorarlberg there were numerous avalanches on Saturday, 30 were reported from Tyrol alone, eleven of them involving people. In Kaltenbach (Zillertal), a 17-year-old New Zealander died under an avalanche in Kleinwalsertal a 55-year-old German who had been missing since Friday evening was found dead under snow masses. A 32-year-old Chinese freerider died in an avalanche in Tyrol on Friday.

Experts from the 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. The snow cover is very prone to disruption, avalanches can not only be triggered by individual winter sports enthusiasts, spontaneous departures are also possible.

Video: Critical avalanche situation in the west of the country:

Significant avalanche danger also in Lower Austria

In the Ybbstal Alps in Lower Austria, the avalanche danger was downgraded from large to significant over the weekend. According to the warning service, this assessment also applied to the Türnitz Alps and the Semmering alternating area above 1,000 meters above sea level.

In the Ybbstal Alps, in the Gippel-Göller and Rax snow mountain area there was a tense avalanche situation in the touring area with extensive, sometimes massive snowdrift deposits, which are generally clearly recognizable. The prevailing avalanche problem in the touring area is the extensive, trouble-prone drift snow, it said regarding the Türnitz Alps and the Semmering alternating area.

Video: The current weather forecast: