Snowboarder (49) ends up next to a ski slope and ‘disappears’ in a meter-deep crevasse

Snowboarder (49) ends up next to a ski slope and ‘disappears’ in a meter-deep crevasse | News

A 49-year-old man ‘disappeared’ into a meters-deep crevasse while snowboarding in Hintertux (Austria). The victim is lucky that other skiers noticed his fall. He was rescued from his predicament after about half an hour.

The 49-year-old Luxembourg citizen was skiing on the Hintertux Glacier, one of the few ski areas in Europe that is open all year round, last Saturday around 1 p.m.

The snowboarder descended from the red slope number 3. On the last slope before the Tuxer-Ferner-Haus, at an altitude of 2,700 meters, the man ended up just outside the marked slope due to poor visibility. A few meters further he suddenly ‘disappeared’ into thin air.

Some skiers who noticed this immediately came to the victim’s aid. With the help of the Tux mountain rescue service, the victim was rescued after half an hour from the crevasse, which was 6 to 7 meters deep.

Upside down

It is remarkable that the same thing happened to another snowboarder a week earlier in the same ski area. Then it was a 42-year-old Italian who disappeared several meters deep into a crevasse. At a depth of 10 meters the man became stuck upside down. Even then, eyewitnesses were able to notify the emergency services. That man was then taken to the hospital in Innsbruck by helicopter.

A Dutch woman (28) died in Hintertux at the beginning of this year. On a red descent towards the valley, a 28-year-old woman slid about 100 meters down the slope, went through a safety net and was thrown about 20 meters through the air, after which she came to rest against a tree. She died from her injuries.