Lech, Austria – On Saturday, January 12, 2019 an avalanche killed 3 skiers while skiing near the Langer Zug run north of the Rufikopf Cable Car at the ski resort of Lech in the Alps of Vorarlberg, Austria. A fourth member of the group is still missing and is presumed dead.
The wife of one of the skiers reported the group missing on Saturday. Authorities responded and located the victims using cellphone tracking. They recovered the bodies of 3 of the skiers on Saturday evening. A fourth skier is still missing and the search was called off due to snow and avalanche risk.
Reports state that they had proper avalanche safety equipment and had deployed airbags. Bild.de and Suedeutsche.de report that the Langer Zug is one of the steepest slopes in the world with a gradient up to 80%.
Update 1/17: Lawis.at reports that the accident occurred on 2019-01-12 at 16:15 at the Rufikopf in Vorarlberg in Austria. The accident was on a 40 degree northeast aspect at 1900 meters. The Lat/Long is recorded as 47.2129° N / 10.1666° E. The size 2 avalanche caught, buried, and killed 4 people during the descent. The victims were properly equipped with avalanche safety gear.
We will try to update this post when more information is available.
See Also: Global Avalanche Accidents 2018/2019
Read more about the avalanche at Lech, Austria from the following sources:
- News.ro
- Stuff.co.nz
- BBC.com
- ABCNews.go.com
- FoxNews.com
- News.sky.com
- APNews.com
- N-TV.de
- SWR.de
- Vol.at
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.
