Eight people died over the weekend in Italian winter sports locations and ten people have been injured, two of them critically. Some of the tragedies may have been avoidable because skiers and snowboarders ignored weather warnings, the Italian press reports.
On Saturday two young men aged 17 and 20 died in an avalanche on Monte Baldo in the Veneto. Mountain rescuers found the first body on Saturday evening but were out all night searching for the second victim, whose body was found on Sunday morning.
An avalanche measuring 80 metres [262.47 feet] across buried three male skiers on Cimon di Palantina in the Veneto Dolomites on Sunday. One of the men managed to raise the alarm but a second man died, despite being equipped with an ARVA transceiver . His body was only found because part of a ski was protruding from the snow. A third man was found by rescuers using probes and he owes his life to an air bubble which formed around him as he lay buried under 80 centimetres [31.49 inches] of snow for two and a half hours. His condition remains critical on Monday night.
A man and a woman were killed in the Val D’Ossola [Piedmont] when a slab of ice crashed across a path. Rescue teams had warned skiers not to use the path because of the risk of falling ice.
In Valvassina [Lombardy] rescue dogs found the body of the manager of the Buzzoni Mountain Refuge in a gully. A married couple were found alive on Monte Grona [Lombardy] after an avalanche swept them 300 metres down into the valley. The wife later died of hyperthermia.
A 45-year-old man is in a critical condition after being rescued from Monte Grem following an avalanche.
All the victims were Italian and there have been calls in Parliament for amendments to Italy’s emergency laws. Prison sentences are envisaged for winter sports enthusiasts who cause avalanches which lead to the deaths of others and those who ski off-piste or ignore official weather warnings could face fines of 5000 euros [£4,400].
The Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner has called this an “hysterical reaction” and says it would be better for sportspeople, guides, judges and politicians to hold talks to decide “at what point tourism becomes mountaineering.”
Codacons, the Italian Coordinating Body for Associations Defending the Environment and the Rights of Users and Consumers, says that there are already penalties in place for causing avalanches and other situations requiring the deployment of mountain rescue teams.
Severe weather warnings remain in place in all Alpine resorts.
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