38-Year-Old Killed In Avalanche While Photographing Ice Climbing Companions In Vorarlberg, Austria
Vorarlberg, Austria – On Saturday, January 14, 2017 three mountaineers were caught in an avalanche near Brand in the district of Bludenz in the state of Vorarlberg in Austria. A 38-year-old German was killed in the avalanche.
The trio had toured passed the Schattenlagant Hutte in the direction of the Sonnenlagantalpe to their ice climbing destination (Vorarlberg.orf.at). A 33-year-old from Messkirch and a 36-year-old from Singen were ice climbing, while their 38-year-old friend from Ueberlingen photographed. At around 15:00 an avalanche struck the group and all three were caught in the slide and carried several hundred meters.
The 33-year-old climber was able to free himself and alert authorities. He then managed to find and dig out the 36-year-old climber. Using their avalanche transceivers, they were able to locate the 38-year-old photographer who was buried 80 cm deep. They dug him out using their bare hands and a climbing helmet (Wetter.at). Unfortunately, the photographer died on the scene.
Rescuers responded, but due to the high avalanche hazard, they made the decision to leave the body at the location and told the two climbers to leave the area. While descending, the climbers were almost caught in another avalanche, but escaped (Vorarlberg.orf.at). The avalanche victim’s body was recovered on Sunday afternoon.
At the time of the avalanche accident, the avalanche danger was rated 3 to 4 (3 below 2000 meters and 4 above 2000 meters). The danger rating rose on Sunday (Warndiense.cnv.at).
There were numerous other avalanche incidents over the weekend in the Alps. Almost a dozen people were caught – some were seriously injured. Visit Heute.at for more information. Please be careful out there.
We will do our best to update this post when more information is available.
Update 1/16: Lawis.at reported on 2017-01-14 15:00 that the avalanche occurred on the Mottakopf/Sonnenlagant at a Lat/Long of 47.0706° N / 9.7232° E. It was a size 3 slab avalanche that occurred during “considerable” avalanche danger.
This is the 6th avalanche fatality in Austria this season:
- 20161016 – Hintertux Glacier, Olperer – 1
- 20161126 – Verwall Valley, Obergurgl – 2
- 20161231 – Krahbergzinken, Schladming – 1
- 20170111 – Maroispitze, Stuben – 1
Read more about the avalanche near Brand, Austria from the following sources:
- SuedKurier.de
- Innsalzach24.de
- Vorarlberg.orf.at
- Warndienste.cnv.at
- Wetter.at
- Salzburg24.at
- Lawine.Tirol.GV.at
- Stuttgarter-Zeitung.de
- Lawis.at
- VN.at
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.
