It was 10:47 a.m. Thursday morning when an avalanche crossed a runway in the Andermatt ski area in the canton of Uri. At the end of the day, the rescuers had rescued six people, including two lightly injured people who were helicoptered to hospitals. The search continued until dusk and was to resume Friday morning.
On a video shot from the adjacent gondola and relayed by “20 minutes”, we can distinguish the medium-sized flow crossing the track at an angle and hitting a full force with a group stopped in its path. The avalanche then continues on a steep slope.
No disappearance notice
“We are looking until the entire avalanche cone has been screened and we are 100% certain there is no one left in the mass of snow, announced Thursday afternoon to the media Reto Pfister, the commander of the uranian cantonal police. Even if we have not received any disappearance notices so far, we cannot be sure that no one is under the snow. “
Of the six rescued, four managed to partially extricate themselves from the snow and escape unharmed. The other two were slightly injured and helicoptered by Rega to the hospital. Thursday evening, a person had already been able to leave the hospital.
The avalanche started in the Oberalppass / Felli area. She crossed a marked trail open for the first time in the season that morning. Before the opening, the runway had been prepared and secured, said Stefan Kern, spokesman for Andermatt-Sedrun station. The avalanche cone is 60 m wide and 300 m long. It’s a sliding avalanche, according to Reto Pfister. The reasons for the start of casting remain unclear. No complaints have yet been made.
More than sixty people carried out the rescue operations, by battering, supported by five rescue dogs. According to the Institute for the Study of Snow and Avalanches, a “marked” level of danger 3 applies to the Andermatt region, due to a large amount of fresh and blown snow in the last three days.
One injured in St. Moritz
A 36-year-old snowboarder was also swept away in an avalanche at around 10 a.m. on Thursday at Piz Nair, above St. Moritz. He was off-piste when a runoff swept him nearly 400 yards. Found wounded in serious condition, man was helicoptered to Chur Hospital, Graubünden police said Thursday
Created: 26.12.2019, 9:30 p.m.
–
