New details about the accident

Avalanche beeper switched off before the accident

The snow slab came loose in the open ski area.

(Bild: ZOOM Tirol)

New, explosive details after the avalanche in the Tyrolean Zillertal on Tuesday: freeriders deactivated their avalanche airbags and avalanche beepers just before their last run. A short time later, one of them was buried by the masses of snow. His comrades rescued him, who was seriously injured.

A group of five Czech freeriders were in the Hochfügen ski area on Tuesday. Among them were two guides. The athletes went to a mountain restaurant for a drink in the afternoon and made an - almost - fatal mistake.

Safety equipment deactivated
The Czechs, who were normally well equipped, apparently switched off their avalanche transceivers and deactivated their avalanche airbags for their visit to the restaurant. However, when they returned to the open terrain at around 3.15 p.m., they no longer activated the safety equipment.

According to reports, this was allegedly because they no longer considered it necessary for the last trip. Their carelessness took its revenge shortly afterwards.

Comrades and eyewitnesses to the accident rescued the partially buried Czech.

(Bild: ZOOM Tirol)

Two Czechs swept away
A 51-year-old guide then fell on the north-east slope below the Waidoffen mountain station, and a Czech (47) who came to his aid triggered a snow slab. Both were swept away. While the 47-year-old came to rest uninjured on the avalanche, the 51-year-old was partially buried.

Mountain rescuers happened to be on site
The two mountain rescuers from Schwaz, Paul Gürtler and Lukas Baradun, were among those who witnessed the avalanche. "We were on a ski tour ourselves and just below the scene of the accident when the avalanche broke loose," Gürtler told the Krone newspaper. The duo immediately rushed to the avalanche cone, two other local ski tourers and eyewitnesses who were a little higher up set the rescue chain in motion.

I wouldn't have entered this slope. During the rescue operation, however, a lot of things worked really well.

Paul Gürtler, Bergrettung Schwaz

Bild: ZOOM Tirol

Victim lying face down on his stomach
"When we arrived at the victim a short time later, the man had practically already been freed by his comrades," says Gürtler. "The Czech was lying on his stomach, face down and breathing." Gürtler and Baradun assisted the other rescuers, applied a makeshift splint to the Czech's broken arm and took him to the emergency helicopter that had been called. The helicopter finally flew the man to Schwaz hospital.

Exemplary rescue operation
"It was an exemplary rescue operation by everyone involved," Gürtler sums up. And the exemplarily equipped Czechs will probably leave their top equipment switched on next time...