After the tragic avalanche accident on St. Stephen’s Day in the Tyrolean Zillertal, even more tragic details became known in the evening: the fatalities were a local father (51) and his son (22). Another son (19) survived.
As reported, the drama started shortly before noon on the famous ski touring mountain near Hippach. It involved a traveling group of four people, consisting of a father (51), his two sons (22 and 19 years old) and a 19-year-old friend.
Accident on a steep eastern slope of 37 degrees
According to investigations, the friend was already at the foot of the 37-degree steep east side. Then an avalanche broke out, sweeping away the 51-year-old and the 22-year-old about 300 meters away and burying them. Other athletes noticed this, set the rescue chain in motion and began digging for the victims.
Major search launched
A major search operation began in the valley with three local mountain rescue services, the Alpine Police, two emergency medical helicopters and the police helicopter. “First we assessed whether the situation was safe. “The emergency services were then flown to the avalanche cone,” says operations manager Florian Wechselberger of the Mayrhofen mountain rescue service.
Son was resuscitated without success, after which father was found dead
The search initially proved difficult; according to the Tyrolean control center, no avalanche transceiver signals from the buried victims could be located. Emergency services eventually found the buried victim using probes – initially finding the 22-year-old at around 1pm at a depth of around two metres. He was resuscitated, but unfortunately all help came too late. 20 minutes later the 51-year-old was located and dug out at a depth of one meter, but he was already dead.
The chance of survival decreases rapidly
“If buried people are not dug out within 15 minutes, the survival curve drops quickly,” Wechselberger explains.
There was already an avalanche alarm in Tyrol on Christmas Day. On the Nordkette, three people were swept away and partially buried by a dust avalanche. Everything went smoothly in the end.
Source: Krone
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