In Tyrol and Vorarlberg, the warning level rose to level 4 on the five-point scale at higher altitudes. The warning services advised against activities away from secured slopes. In the past few days, nine people have died in avalanches in Austria.
Tyrolean and Vorarlberg experts warned above all of extensive snowdrift deposits above the tree line, which formed due to the stormy wind in the past few days. Even small additional loads could cause avalanches, spontaneous departures and remote triggering are also possible, according to the warning reports. The old snow cover could also be swept away, so large avalanches are also possible. The danger spots are above 1,600 meters and are difficult to see due to the poor visibility. The current situation requires a lot of experience in assessing the avalanche danger, so inexperienced people should not leave secured slopes.
Hurricane and 40 centimeters of fresh snow
During the night on Monday, up to 40 centimeters of fresh snow fell in Vorarlberg. Due to hurricane-force gusts of wind of up to 150 km/h, large amounts of snow were transported. As the day progresses, snowdrift accumulations will therefore increase again. Danger spots are mainly at higher elevations of the western, northern and eastern exposures. At lower altitudes, the warning level is 3 (“considerable”), according to the experts. The situation will remain delicate in the coming days.
More missions than ever before
In the past few days there have been around 100 avalanche events in Tyrol alone. 490 mountain rescuers and 30 alpine police officers had to be deployed. There were more missions than ever before. Many accidents involving winter sports enthusiasts went unharmed, but nine people died in avalanches in Austria over the weekend. A particularly tragic event happened in Spiss on the Tyrolean-Swiss border, where five people lost their lives in the snow masses.
The President of the Austrian Mountain Rescue Service, Stefan Hochstaffl from Tyrol, criticized the winter sports enthusiasts who go on ski tours in such precarious conditions: “People are already ignorant. When we had avalanche warning level 4 on Thursday and we flew by helicopter, we did As we saw: Everything was just gone, without consideration. You can also go on a ski tour with a 4er, but you have to be brutally defensive. And that wasn’t the case,” said Hochstaffl in the Ö1 “Journal at eight “. The head of the Tyrolean avalanche warning service, Rudi Mair, had already criticized Friday.
Source: Nachrichten
