Avalanche in Italy: 2 Dead, 5 Injured in South Tyrol Rescue Operation

Two ski mountaineers died and five others were injured, three seriously, after an avalanche struck a group of 25 people in Val Ridanna, South Tyrol, Italy, on Saturday, March 21, 2026. The avalanche occurred at approximately 11:40 a.m. At an elevation of 2,445 meters (8,022 feet) on the Tallone Grande, also known as the Great Heel, a peak straddling the ridge between Val Ridanna and Val di Racines.

The Bolzano Emergency Coordination Center confirmed the fatalities as Martin Parigger, a 62-year-aged mountain guide from Ridnaun, and Alexander Frötscher, 56, originally from Ridnaun but residing in Austria. Parigger was guiding a group of Austrian ski mountaineers at the time of the incident. A 26-year-old woman from Brescia, Italy, was airlifted by Austrian rescue helicopter Christophorus to the University Hospital in Innsbruck with critical injuries. A German tourist and an Austrian national are also reported to be in serious condition, while two other German citizens sustained minor injuries.

The rescue operation involved six helicopters deployed from both South Tyrol and the Austrian Tyrol, along with approximately 80 rescuers from the South Tyrol Mountain Rescue Service, the Bergrettung, the Alpine Rescue Corps of the Guardia di Finanza (SAGF), and Austrian Mountain Rescue. Hospitals in Bolzano, Merano, Bressanone, and Innsbruck were placed on alert to receive the injured.

The avalanche front was described as 150 meters wide and 800 meters long. Most of the 25 ski mountaineers caught in the slide were only grazed by the snow. The incident prompted a large-scale response, one of the largest avalanche rescue operations seen in the region in recent years.

The tragedy comes less than two weeks after the tenth anniversary of a major avalanche on Monte Nevoso, near Riva di Tures, which claimed six lives. That event, occurring on March 12th, remains the deadliest avalanche disaster in the Alto Adige region in recent decades, and included the deaths of a 16-year-old boy, a nurse, an experienced alpinist, and the director general of the Tyrolean Chamber of Commerce.