Avalanche In Off Piste Area At Gemsstock Leaves One Dead, Two Injured
Gemsstock, Switzerland – At approximately 3pm on January 7, 2017 five young skiers were skiing off piste in the Luterseeli area at the ski resort of Gemsstock near the village of Andermatt in the canton of Uri in Switzerland. During their off piste descent, 3 of the 5 skiers were caught in an avalanche that left one dead and two with life threatening injuries.
The three skiers who were caught in the avalanche were partially buried. The remaining two skiers who were not caught in the avalanche immediately notified authorities. They then proceeded to find, dig out, and care for their friends while they waited for rescuers to arrive on scene. When rescuers arrived, the seriously injured skiers were taken by helicopter to local hospitals.
The five youths are from the Uri Oberland. Most reports are unclear about the ages of the skiers, but Radio.li reports that the avalanche victim was 18 years old.
The SLF.ch called the starting zone Gemsstock, Luterseeli. They note that the avalanche started at 2400 meters. It caught 3 victims and buried 0. The avalanche danger was 3 out of 5 (“considerable”) at the time. See a map marking the location of the incident here.
UPDATE 1/11: Lawis.at reports that the size 2 slab avalanche occurred on a NW aspect.
We will try to update this post when more information is available.
This is the 2nd avalanche fatality in Switzerland during the 2016/2017 hydrological year:
- 20160106 – Teti Seri, Valais
Read more about the avalanche in Gemsstock near Andermatt, Switzerland from the following sources:
- SLF.ch
- TicinoNews.ch
- Blick.ch
- Bluewin.ch
- SRF.ch
- Radio.li
All information in this post was found using Google Translate. There may be errors in this information. Please use the sources listed above to verify all facts.
