Deadly Avalanches Strike Alps
Avalanches swept down Alpine slopes at the height of the ski season Monday, killing three skiers in Italy and three in Switzerland.
In Italy, two back-to-back avalanches in the northern Venosta Valley trapped a group of seven Germans and one Italian skiing on an unauthorized route, Alpine rescue official Luigi Weger said.
Searchers recovered the bodies of two women and one man and accounted for the remaining five skiers, Weger said. At least one was hospitalized with severe hypothermia. The valley is about 90 miles from the northern Italian city of Bolzano.
In Switzerland, a 200-yard-wide snowslide buried two Swiss skiers and a German near the popular eastern ski resort of Davos, police said.
Local prosecutors said two German skiers, father and son, ignored warnings and were caught in a snowslide while skiing off the marked piste. They were swept away shortly after noon (6 a.m. EST). A search dog found the father's body buried beneath 4-1/2 feet of snow an hour later. The son freed himself and was receiving medical attention.
The avalanche cascaded another 350 yards down the mountain, burying two people from Geneva who were skiing on a marked piste. Searchers found them over two hours later and flew them to hospital, but doctors could not revive them.
Recent heavy snowfall followed by blue skies and sunshine Monday had prompted official avalanche warnings for both areas.
Italian schools are out this week for what is known as "white week," freeing pupils for family ski trips.
Many Swiss youngsters also are given weeklong school vacations during the popular vacation weekend.
In 1999, alpine avalanches killed 12 people in Italy and 36 in Switzerland, according to an Italian avalanche center.
On Saturday, an avalanche killed two alpine skiers in the Val di Racines, around three miles south of the Brenner pass which links Italy and Austria.
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