The death toll from avalanches in the French Alps over the weekend rises to six as three more skiers are killed.
AFP via South China Morning Post →Three additional skiers were killed in the French Alps, bringing the weekend avalanche death toll to six in separate incidents across the mountain range.
6 KILLED BY SNOW SLIDE
FRESNO, Calif., Feb. 10— Eleven persons, including one woman, were killed, eight were injured and three are missing following a snowslide which thundered down the Sierra Nevada Mountains and engulfed a construction camp of the Southern California Edison Company according to word received here today. Five Bodies Recovered Five bodies have been recovered. The construction camp is located about 15 miles northeast of here, at an altitude of 1,000 feet. Second Slide Follows The snow loosened by recent heavy rains cascaded down the mountain side and killed 10 persons outright and injured 11 others. While a rescue party was attempting to aid the stricken, a second slide came hurling down and killed one more and injured 10 others, uprooting trees and carrying huge boulders down on the camp. Warned by the roar of the avalanche, few of the workers were able to run to safety. The others were trapped. The camp buildings were crushed like egg shells. It was in one of these camp buildings that Mrs. C. J. Pattison, wife of the camp electrician foreman, lost her life. While the rescue parties were working to recover the bodies of the dead and to administer to the injured, the second slide came roaring down. It followed in the path of the first one, although of not such great proportions. Most of the rescue party managed to scramble from its path. One man, however, was killed and 10 others were injured.
Original Newspaper Page
What Happened Next
Winter of Terror
The Winter of Terror was a three-month period during the winter of 1950–1951 during which an unprecedented number of avalanches took place in the Alps in Switzerland, Austria and Italy. The series of 649 avalanches killed over 265 people and caused large amounts of damage to residential and other human-made structures.
Wikipedia →1954 Blons avalanches
The Blons avalanches took place in Austria in January 1954. Two big avalanches struck Blons within 9 hours, the second of which buried rescue workers who were attempting to save civilians from the first avalanche. The avalanches occurred over a two-day period beginning from 11 January 1954 and resulted in the death of 125 people, 57 of whom were killed specifically in Blons.
Wikipedia →Dyatlov Pass incident
The Dyatlov Pass incident was an event in which nine Soviet ski hikers died in the northern part of the Ural Mountains ridge in the Russian SFSR of the Soviet Union on 1 or 2 February 1959 under undetermined circumstances. The experienced trekking group from the Ural Polytechnical Institute, led by Igor Dyatlov, went on a hike of the highest difficulty level at that time, and had established a camp on the eastern slopes of Kholat Syakhl mountain.
Wikipedia →2012 Tunnel Creek avalanche
The 2012 Tunnel Creek avalanche occurred in the northwest United States on February 19, 2012. Three days before the avalanche occurred, a large snow storm dumped 32 inches (0.8 m) into Stevens Pass, which resulted in the unstable snow pack that was disrupted by skiers.
Wikipedia →