Overview
- A slab avalanche in Kühtai, Tyrol struck three off-piste snowboarders and left a 49-year-old from Berlin fully buried and later found dead.
- Police said the group had no avalanche emergency gear, which forced rescuers to probe the debris by hand after helicopters reached the scene.
- The second victim in Kühtai was only partly buried and a helicopter crew lifted him out and delivered him to a local doctor uninjured.
- In Sportgastein, Salzburg, a wet-snow slide about 150 meters wide buried a snowboarder 1.5 meters deep, where his partner located him with a transceiver in seven minutes, then dug him out alive.
- Mountain rescue groups warn of high avalanche danger across the Alps, with at least 135 deaths in Europe this winter as spring warmth weakens the snowpack.