An Italian and Slovak Die In An Avalanche While Touring To A Climbing Route In Swiss Alps
Safiental, Switzerland – On Saturday, March 5, 2016 a natural avalanche caught and buried a 29-year-old Slovak and a 33-year-old Italian as they were ski touring to an ice climb on Höllgraben near Safiental in the Grison Alps in the Graubünden canton of Switzerland.
The avalanche struck the skiers at 1800 meters as they ascended. Both were completely buried. News.ch reports that there was heavy snow and poor visibility at the time. Relatives reported the men missing when they did not return on Saturday night.
Due to avalanche danger, Alpine Rescue Graubünden, SAC Piz Terri, rescue station Safien responded to the avalanche on Sunday morning. They located the bodies with avalanche transceivers and flew the bodies out by Rega helicopter.
SLF.ch reports that the avalanche started on the Bodenhorn at 2400 meters on a north aspect. The avalanche danger rating at the time was 3 of 5.
There were five other people buried in avalanches on Saturday in Graubünden canton in Switzerland. This is the 11th avalanche fatality in Switzerland during the 2015/2016 winter season.
We will try to update this post as more information becomes available.
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Read more about the two avalanche fatalities in the Swiss Alps from these sources:
- SLF Avalanche Accident Report
- SLF Topo Map
- RSI.ch
- News.ch
- Nzz.ch
- 20min.ch
- Suedostschweiz.ch
- Blick.ch
