CAUGHT BY AVALANCHE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19736, 4 January 1927, Page 7

CAUGHT BY AVALANCHE

SKI-ING PARTY’S FATE BURIED IN LANDSLIDE. EIGHT ENGLISHMEN AND TWO GERMANS. DISASTER IN THE TYROL. By Telegraph—Per Press Assn.-—Copyright. Received January 3, 7.30 p.m. LONDON, Jan. 2. Inn esbruck reports that the worst avalanche disaster for many a year occurred at Z*ures. Ten members of a skiing party, eight Englishmen and two Germans, were buried. The bodies of five Englishmen were recovered. The noise of the avalanche sweeping towards the valley was heard for miles around. Later messages from Innesbruck state that Alberg, where the avalanche occurred, is a famous ski-ing region, but difficult, being suitable only for experts. It is especially dangerous now owing to a thaw following extreme cold. This caused an enormous snowfield half a mile wide to break from the mountain side, engulfing two skiing parties from Zares. Of these two were women, one of whom was killed. Some bodies were buried under a snowdrift as high as a two-storey house. Rescue parties worked in relays the whole night through by the light of flares, digging frantically in the hope that someone might be alive. The faces of victims recovered so far were calm and passive, indicating that death was instantaneous.