Nine people have died in the last three days in Austria, mainly in the Tyrol region where around a hundred avalanches have been recorded. On Friday, the emergency services had reported five deaths in the same group without giving details.
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The police have since clarified that they were Swedes in their forties who went off-piste with a mountain guide in the Ischgl ski area, on the border with Switzerland.
The monitor and four of the men were carried 350 meters and completely buried. Only the fifth survived: he was able to warn a friend by telephone and was evacuated by helicopter.
On the same day, a 60-year-old man and his 61-year-old wife who were ski touring died in the municipality of Auffach, according to another press release from the Tirol police. The next day, a 58-year-old Austrian was killed in an avalanche in Schirmn, not far from Innsbruck. He was accompanied by four other people who were injured.
Another fatal accident occurred on Friday in the far west of the country, in Vorarlberg, claiming the life of a 43-year-old veteran skier. His friends were able to locate him and call the emergency services, but the doctor was unable to revive him.
Rescuers have had to intervene on an exceptional number of avalanches since Friday, due to heavy snowfall. One of them engulfed five winter sports enthusiasts on a slope in the famous resort of Sölden, but all of them could be saved.
“Over the past three days, there have been around 100 avalanche-type incidents, requiring 70 interventions”a number “unprecedented”said the Tirol authorities on Sunday, warning of a “danger” high which should persist in the coming days.
In recent years, avalanches have killed an average of 20 people a year in Austria. The last two seasons had been less deadly, as the Covid-19 pandemic reduced the number of skiers in the mountains.