Image by: lawine.tirol.gv.at
Details of the avalanche that took the lives of two US Ski Team Development athletes are coming to light. The young men (Ronnie Berlack, 20, from Franconia, New Hampshire and Bryce Astle, 19, of Sandy, Utah) were killed in an avalanche in Soelden, Austria on Monday, January 3rd, 2015.
Berlack and Astle were freeskiing down the extremely steep north face Gaislachkogels peak with 4 other skiers when the avalanche struck. The terrain was accessed via the tram.
The avalanche was 30cm deep, 20m wide, 360m wide and buried the two skiers 3m deep.
Sadly, neither of the two buried skiers were wearing avalanche beacons at the time. 60 rescuers helped in locating the buried skiers.
Avalanche danger was rated at “Considerable” the day of the avalanche.
The full avalanche path and rescue operation. Image by: lawine.tirol.gv.at