On Saturday afternoon, at the time of the fatal avalanche accident below the 2459 meter high summit of the Lackenspitze in the Lungau municipality of Tweng, level 3 on the five-part avalanche warning scale was applied above the tree line.
A few days earlier, the strong wind had collected large amounts of snowdrift, which were considered to be easily released. “The problem was already embedded in the snowpack,” says the regional manager of Upper Austria. Mountain rescue, Christoph Preimesberger from Hallstatt. “The trigger then happened one, two or three days later.”
The five-point scale starts with “low” (1), goes on through “moderate” (2) and “considerable” (3) to “large” (4) and “very large” (5). “Most accidents happen at warning level 3,” says Gaspoltshofen mayor Wolfgang Klinger. “I have pointed this out again and again during my time as State Security Councilor.”
Because the warning level is in the middle, many ski tourers underestimate the danger, says mountain rescuer Preimesberger. “At level 3 there are still a lot of people on the way.” At this warning level, even a small additional load is sufficient to trigger larger snowboards. “That means paying attention to the slope, paying attention to the expositions,” says Preimesberger. You also have to look at the further explanations in the avalanche situation report (available on the Internet for each federal state, note). It is important to maintain greater safety distances at level 3 from a certain slope.
The risk remains considerable in some cases
In the Dachstein region and in the Toten Gebirge there is currently a moderate to sometimes significant slab risk above the tree line – i.e. level 2, but mostly level 3. According to the avalanche warning service of the state of Upper Austria, the prevailing problem remains the drift snow collected by the strong wind. (gs)
Source: Nachrichten
