The snowpack is particularly unstable in Austria. This Sunday, five people were found dead after snowslides in the tourist west of Austria according to the police questioned by AFP, while the ski season is in full swing.
An Austrian “occupied with snow removal on Saturday morning was found in an avalanche zone after a search operation on Sunday and the emergency doctor could only confirm the death”, the Tyrol police said in a press release. The accident happened while the 59-year-old victim was driving his farm tractor. The man was taken to the Debanttal valley, located not far from the town of Lienz, police said.
Hiking and off-road
A 62-year-old man, wanted since Saturday when he had not returned from a ski tour in the locality of Kaunerberg, was found buried by rescuers and could not be revived, said a doorman. -word of the police.
Two ski tourers aged 29 and 33, including a guide, carried off-piste on Saturday morning were found dead on Sunday in Sankt Anton am Arlberg, he also said. Finally, a last death was confirmed to AFP by the police on Sunday in Längenfeld, in the Ötztal valley. The authorities did not want to give information on the nationality of these last four victims.
Eight dead over the weekend
These five deaths in Tyrol bring the total number of deaths recorded this weekend in western Austria due to avalanches to eight. A 17-year-old New Zealander, a 55-year-old German and a 32-year-old Chinese were already found dead on Saturday. In Tyrol and the neighboring region of Vorarlberg, the warning services continued to describe the situation as dangerous on Sunday due to wind and snowfall.
In these two popular regions, the specialists of the warning services have called on winter sports enthusiasts to exercise caution. The alert level of four on a scale of five has not stopped many holidaymakers from venturing off marked trails, authorities said.
Perilous rescues
30 avalanches were reported on Saturday in Tyrol alone, eleven of which involved people. This situation gave rise to numerous rescue interventions made perilous by the weather conditions.
The February school holidays have started in Vienna and the resorts have filled up, after a gloomy start to the season, marked by the absence of snow at low and medium altitudes. In recent years, in Austria, a leading destination for winter sports, snowslides have caused an annual average of around twenty deaths.