Eight skiers died in three separate avalanches across the Austrian Alps on Saturday, days after heavy snowfall raised the avalanche risk for the mountain range, the local authorities said.
They are the most recent deaths in a string of them across the Alps this ski season. At least 11 other people have died in similar accidents over the past week in Austria, France and Switzerland, according to officials and local news media reports.
In Austria on Saturday, a skier was buried and killed by an avalanche at an elevation of 2,200 meters, or 7,200 feet, in the Schmugglerscharte area in the state of Salzburg, the mountain rescue service in the Pongau region said in a statement.
Another avalanche hit a group of seven skiers about 20 miles south near Finsterkopf mountain later on Saturday afternoon. Four were killed, two were injured and a seventh person was unharmed, the mountain rescue service said.
Three Czech skiers were swept away and buried by an avalanche on Saturday afternoon in Pusterwald, about 70 miles east of the Finsterkopf area, the Austrian police said in a statement. They were confirmed dead after rescuers partially recovered the bodies, the police said.
Four other Czech skiers who were part of the same group were not buried and were given medical treatment, the police said. The circumstances of the avalanche and the identities of those killed are being investigated, the police said.
Other avalanches were triggered by winter sports enthusiasts in the Pongau region on Saturday, but no one was injured, the mountain rescue service said.
“Despite clear and repeated warnings, numerous avalanches occurred again today — unfortunately with fatal consequences,” Gerhard Kremser, the district head of the Pongau mountain rescue service, said in a statement.
“This tragedy painfully demonstrates the seriousness of the current avalanche situation,” he added.
Last weekend, the Alps experienced heavy snowfall after an extended period of minimal snowfall. That snow fell on unstable older snow, creating the perfect conditions for avalanches, according to the Avalanche warning service of Tyrol, a state in the Austrian Alps.
The risk of avalanches on Saturday was rated a three out of five for some high altitude regions of the Austrian Alps, according to the country’s provincial avalanche warning services. That means avalanches can be easily and sometimes spontaneously triggered, especially on steep slopes.
The danger on Sunday increased rapidly for altitudes above 1,800 meters and was considerable above 2,000 meters, the service said.
On average, 19 people die each year in Austria because of avalanches, according to Austria’s Road Safety Board. This year, there have been at least 10 deaths so far.
On Jan. 11, a 58-year-old Austrian woman was killed by an avalanche while backcountry skiing in Weerberg at an altitude of about 2,300 meters, the local police said. Two days later, a 13-year-old Czech boy died after being caught up in an avalanche as he skied near Goldbergbahn.
In Switzerland, three people were killed in two avalanches on Wednesday and Thursday and in France, six skiers died in an avalanche last weekend, local media reported.
Yan Zhuang is a Times reporter in Seoul who covers breaking news.
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