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The Riffelberg (archive image): The avalanche is said to have occurred outside the marked and controlled ski slopes
Photo: Jean-Christophe Bott/dpa
Around three weeks after a fatal ski tour near Zermatt, several people are missing again in the region. After an avalanche, police and rescue workers on Riffelberg are searching for at least three people with a large contingent. The avalanche was very large and the search area was correspondingly large.
The newspaper “Blick” published online videos from skiers that were supposed to show the avalanche. Amounts of snow then fall downhill and create clouds of snow. A voice can be heard on a video saying in English that there were four people in the area on the opposite slope.
According to a police spokesman, more people could have been swept away by the masses of snow. However, according to him, there were initially no further reports of missing persons. This is not unusual because athletes in the affected area only gradually returned to their accommodation in the evening.
Experts had warned of the danger
According to the police, the avalanche occurred in a variant area. This is terrain where experienced skiers usually ski in deep snow outside of the marked and controlled ski slopes and where many avalanche accidents occur. Winter sports enthusiasts in these areas often have avalanche detection devices with them, which send a signal meters deep under the snow.
The Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (WLF) warned of a high risk of avalanches on Monday morning. “Very large and in some cases extremely large spontaneous avalanches are to be expected,” it said. There was also a great danger of avalanches in Tyrol in Austria and in South Tyrol. The reasons for this were a lot of fresh snow and sometimes hurricane-force winds, which caused large accumulations of drifting snow. According to the avalanche warning services, these are particularly susceptible to failure.
If the ski slopes are marked, ski area experts ensure that they are closed if there is a risk of avalanches. Outside the marked pistes, ski tourers must assess the danger themselves. In Switzerland, 14 people died in twelve avalanche accidents in the winter of 2023/24 by the end of March.
Around three weeks ago, six ski tourers had a fatal accident near Zermatt. Five bodies were recovered. The group had encountered bad weather and was unable to leave or get to a hut. People froze to death in the snow at temperatures well below zero degrees.
The Riffelberg is a good 2,500 meters high. It is part of the ski area on Gornergrat with a view of the Matterhorn, around 7.5 kilometers away - when visibility is good.
spr/dpa