Image: (APA/BARBARA GINDL)
The police were looking for at least three missing people, a spokesman said in the evening. It is possible that more people were swept away. According to him, there were initially no reports of missing persons. There was a large contingent of police and rescue workers on site, said the spokesman for the police in the canton of Valais. The search area is very large.
- Also read: Without a happy ending: Mondseer helped with a serious avalanche accident [OÖNplus]
Zermatt lies below the famous Matterhorn. The newspaper “Blick” published online videos from skiers that were supposed to show the avalanche. Huge amounts of snow fall downhill and create large clouds of snow. A voice can be heard on a video saying in English that there were four people in the area on the opposite slope.
According to police, the avalanche occurred in a variant area. This is terrain where experienced skiers normally ski in deep snow outside of the marked and controlled ski slopes. Most avalanche accidents occur in such areas, often caused by off-piste skiers. These winter sports enthusiasts often have avalanche detection devices with them, which send a signal even meters deep under the snow. Many equipment also includes an avalanche airbag, which, when inflated, ensures that a skier does not end up deep under the masses of snow in the event of an avalanche.
“Large spontaneous avalanches to be expected”
The Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (WLF) had warned of a high risk of avalanches in the morning. “Very large and occasionally extremely large spontaneous avalanches are to be expected,” it said. There was also a great danger of avalanches in Tyrol in Austria and in South Tyrol. The reasons for this were a lot of fresh snow and sometimes hurricane-force winds, which caused large accumulations of drifting snow. According to the avalanche warning services, these are particularly susceptible to failure.
If the ski slopes are marked, ski area experts ensure that they are closed if there is a risk of avalanches. Outside the marked pistes, ski tourers must assess the danger themselves. In Switzerland, 14 people died in twelve avalanche accidents in the winter of 2023/24 by the end of March.
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Source: Nachrichten
