In an avalanche on the Lackenspitze near Tweng in Salzburg’s Lungau region, three ski tourers were spilled and killed by a large slab of snow on Saturday. Two ski tourers could only be rescued dead. A buried tourer had to be resuscitated and was flown to the Klagenfurt hospital by helicopter, seriously injured, said the Red Cross operations manager, Anton Schilcher, in an interview with the APA. He died in the hospital.
Two other injured, but not buried, were taken with the ambulance to Tamsweg Hospital. A group of eleven ski tourers under 30 years of age from Pongau, Ennstal and Upper Austria was affected. The young ski tourers were well equipped, said the head of operations.
The avalanche is likely to have dissolved around 1.45 p.m. at around 2,400 meters above sea level just below the summit. During the ascent of the group, a large slab of snow 200 meters wide and 500 meters long fell off and carried away eight ski tourers. Some of the buried people were up to 4.5 meters deep, said the Lungau’s disaster control officer, Christoph Wiedl, to ORF Salzburg. After a large-scale search, the three ski tourers were gradually rescued. The last victim was excavated by the mountain rescue team at 5.30 p.m.
Five helicopters, mountain rescue and the Red Cross were in action with 120 people. The Tweng community building has been converted into an operations center. A crisis intervention team looked after the uninjured tourers from the group and their relatives.
In the area there was avalanche warning level 3 (significant) above the tree line on Saturday. The wind is likely to have collected amounts of snowdrift that were considered to be easily released.