Two ski tourers were hit by an avalanche on the Mölltal Glacier on Sunday. Any help came too late for one of them. The ski area was not open at all due to bad weather.
On Sunday, a slab of snow came loose off the slopes between the Glacier Jet and the Altecklift valley station on the Mölltal Glacier. Two ski tourers were swept away by the avalanche. The men are two Slovakians. “The 33-year-old was able to free himself from the masses of snow, but any help came too late for his 40-year-old friend,” says Horst Wohlgemuth, head of the Spittal an der Drau Alpine task force, describing the operation on Sunday afternoon. Help came too late, the ski area was closed. It was only an hour and a half later that the 33-year-old was able to start the rescue chain. “The ski area was closed due to bad weather, there was no one on site, the lifts were at a standstill,” Wohlgemuth continued. At the beginning of December there was already an avalanche victim on the Mölltal Glacier: When a Czech freerider (51) made his first tracks in the fresh snow, a slab of snow came loose – the man was no longer able to escape the masses of snow and was swallowed up by them.
source site-12