The most disastrous Avalanche Events in Austria since 1946/47

Breckenridge

International Snow Science Workshop

2016

S. 410-416

Monographie

201176

ABSTRACT: Avalanches are one of the principal natural hazards in alpine regions, resulting frequently in disastrous accidents. In this paper accidents with 5 or more than 5 fatalities were defined as a disastrous event. Taking into account this definition, 47 disastrous avalanches occurred in the last 70 years. These 47 events claimed 474 fatalities. The events with the highest number of fatalities occurred in Blons (1954) where two huge avalanches within 9 hours reached the village and killed 56 inhabitants, and in Galtür (1999) where 31 people lost their lives. Both events rank to the so-called catastrophic avalanches. The most serious `tourist avalanche took place in 1982 near to Werfenweng where 13 skiers have been killed. The most recent event was an accident in the Wattener Lizum with 5 fatalities which occurred in February 2016. While `catastrophic avalanches´ generally are correlated with heavy snowfall, `tourist avalanches´ can be associated not only with new snow but also with a weak snowpack and increasing temperatures. The decreasing trend in the case of `catastrophic avalanches´ undoubtedly is a result of the high standard of technical protective measures in Austria; however, fatalities caused by tourist avalanches predominated in the last 35 to 45 years which can be explained by a rising number of skiers and mountaineers.
KEYWORDS: avalanche accidents, avalanche fatalities, avalanche history