Avalanche Kills 16-Year-Old Australian Skier In St. Anton, Austria (UPDATED)

January 10, 2019

St. Anton Am Arlberg, Austria – On Wednesday, January 9, 2019 a 16-year-old skier from Sydney, Australia was caught, buried, and killed by an avalanche while skiing near the Zammermoos ski run at the resort of St. Anton am Arlberg in Tyrol, Austria.

The accident occurred at the end of the day as a family of four was skiing. The family had gotten stuck in steep terrain and had called for a rescue. As they waited, the mother and son were caught in the avalanche.

Rescuers arrived. The mother freed herself, but it took 20-30 minutes to located and extract the 16-year-old. The victim was buried roughly 2-meters deep and was not wearing a transceiver.

Lawinewarndienst.blogspot.com initially noted that the slide happened near Zammermoos. It measured 140 long, 30m wide, and 20cm-1m deep. It occurred in 45 degree terrain.

News.com.au identified the victim as 16-year-old Max Meyer of Sydney, Australia.

Lawis.at reports that this avalanche occurred on 2019-01-09 at 16:39 at Steißbachtal-Grüble in Tirol, Austria. They report a Lat/Long of 47.1305° N / 10.2480° E, which is a 46 degree east aspect at 1610 meters. The size 2 slab avalanche measured 140 meters long by 45 meters wide and 55 centimeters deep. Four people were involved in the accident. Two were caught. One was partially buried and the other fully buried. One person did not survive. They were not wearing standard avalanche safety gear.

We will try to update this post when more information is available.

UPDATE 1/17:

According to 9News.com.au and Tirol.orf.at note that the slide that killed the teenager is suspected to have been triggered by the ski patrol as they were skiing down to rescue the family. An investigation will be conducted.

Read more about the avalanche in St. Anton, Austria from the following sources: