At least two skiers have died in an avalanche accident in the Alps. In the Italian Aosta Valley, the mountain rescue service was only able to rescue a 31-year-old man dead from the snow.
February 15, 2026, 7:49 p.m02/16/2026, 03:41
A man of about the same age died shortly afterwards. Another skier had to be taken to hospital in Turin by helicopter. According to emergency services, the 35-year-old is in critical condition.
The avalanche broke out around 11 a.m. above the town of Courmayeur. The skiers were away from the groomed pistes in a side valley. The area is often used for downhill skiing in deep snow. According to the mountain rescue service, all three victims come from France. The avalanche danger was not considered to be particularly high at the time of the accident.
Another avalanche in Trentino
An avalanche also occurred in the Alps in the northern Italian region of Trentino on Sunday. According to the rescue services, other skiers there managed to pull a buried person out of the snow on their own. Since the beginning of winter, several fatal avalanche accidents have occurred in the Alps. Several Germans also died.
Avalanche deaths also in the Polish High Tatras
There was another fatal avalanche accident in the Slovakian-Polish border mountains of the High Tatras at the weekend, as the PAP news agency reported. 59 members of the Polish mountain rescue service TOPR had been searching for a missing mountaineer since Saturday afternoon. Other mountain tourists were also asked on Facebook for information about the whereabouts of the man with brightly colored equipment.
On Sunday, however, the mountain rescuers had to announce that the missing man had been found dead under an avalanche. The man is the fourth avalanche death in the High Tatras within nine days. Before that, two Hungarian tourists and a Czech died in avalanches on the Slovakian side. (sda/dpa)