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Updated: 7.50pm
SIX CLIMBERS, INCLUDING a teenager, were killed in an Alpine avalanche today that struck the Monte Nevoso area, close to Italy’s border with Austria, rescuers said.
The victims included five Italian nationals, one of whom was 16, and an Austrian woman.
The six were among a group of 15 people who were very close to the summit of Monte Nevoso, climbing at an altitude of more than 3,300 metres (10,800 feet), when the avalanche hit in the late morning.
The others escaped unharmed, despite earlier reports several of them were injured.
The peak, whose summit stands at 3,358 metres, is also known as Schneebiger Nock.
Four helicopters were dispatched to the area but the altitude meant they were forced to fly with minimal fuel to reduce their airborne weight, hampering the operation.
Monte Nevoso lies in the Aurina valley in the South Tyrol region of northeastern Italy.
The avalanche risk in the Italian Alps this weekend was assessed to be reasonably low, just two out of five.
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Oh that’s terrible.. Please let some of the missing be found alive.
Anyone buried for more than 15 min has sadly almost zero chance of survival
Is being buried what kills people in an avalanche?
Where did the article mention missing people? But yes, if you survive the physical trauma of being hit by tonnes of snow moving at great speed, you’ll asphyxiate quickly after being buried. Why the mention of the teenager though? Could just as easily mentioned “Woman among those killed” Can’t it just be six people tragically died?
Yes. Suffocation usually. I know a guy who survived being buried by an avalanche in the Alps. He described it as like being trapped inside in a washing machine. He was being thrown around like a rag doll and he had no idea which way was up.
He was climbing with around a dozen colleagues. All were buried by anything from a foot to a few meters of snow. When the avalanche came to a stop only my friend and one of the others were in a position to dig themselves under their own power. The others were either too deeply buried and or too badly injured/concussed.
Between the two of them they were then able to dig rest of the group out because fortunately, all were wearing avalanche radio beacons. Without the radio beacons there would have been no way to locate them all in time and the majority would surely have died of suffocation. As It was, only one man was killed. His neck had been broken due to the violence of the avalanches impact.
Hi a great adventure ends in such sadness it makes me wonder why at this time of year people put them at such risk of loosing there lives. How very tragic for the loved ones left to grieve RIP to those who lost there lives.
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