Image: (APA/ZEITUNGSFOTO.AT)
Regarding the departure reported at around 10.25 a.m. on Sunday Längenfeld (Ötztal) with one fatality was initially little known. A winter sports enthusiast had been buried in the area of the Geigenkamm, initially, according to the control center, he had been rescued from the masses of snow. According to police information at noon, the person died.
In St Anton am Arlberg On Saturday at around 10:30 a.m., two 29 and 33-year-old winter sports enthusiasts, a ski guide and his Austrian guest, were hit by a slab of snow in the open ski area. The search for the men was interrupted because of the high risk of avalanches, and the situation was classified as too dangerous even after blasting. Their avalanche transceivers could be located close together. The search was resumed on Sunday despite the tricky conditions, so the rescuers had to turn off guards who observed the avalanche-prone slope during the rescue.
The 62-year-old Austrian had also been searched for since Saturday, he was on a ski tour High Aifnerspitze not returned. 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 a ground search was initially not possible because of the acute danger of avalanches. The search operation was therefore only continued on Sunday.
In East Tyrol an avalanche hit a snow plow on Saturday, the driver died:
Numerous new avalanche operations were reported again on Sunday. So became in Längenfeld (Ötztal) buried a person in the area of the Geigenkamm, they could be rescued from the snow masses. A person buried after an avalanche was also rescued Warth am Arlberg. In Schwendau (Zillertal) and Hopfgarten (Brixental) the winter sports enthusiasts were able to free themselves from the snow masses. More avalanche operations in Solden and in Kleinwalsertal ran at noon, according to the control centers, it was initially unclear whether there were people buried.
In Tyrol and Vorarlberg there were numerous avalanches on Saturday, 30 were reported from Tyrol alone, eleven of them involving people. In Kaltenbach (Zillertal) died a 17-year-old New Zealander 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. The situation is still dangerous, there is a warning level of four on the five-part scale. Inexperienced skiers should not leave the slopes at the moment.
Video: Tense avalanche situation in the west of the country:
Source: Nachrichten
