Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Sports

Two members of U.S. Ski racing team die in Austrian avalanche

Bryce Astle, 19 and Ronnie Berlack, 20, both of the U.S. development-level ski team, were free-skiing together in the Soelden area of the Alps when they were caught in the avalanche.

“Ronnie and Bryce were both outstanding ski racers who were passionate about their sport – both on the race course and skiing the mountain,” the president of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, Tiger Shaw, said in a statement on their website.

“Both of them loved what they did and conveyed that to those around them.”

There were no other deaths reported in the avalanche and four other members of the U.S. development-level ski team were there but able to ski out of the avalanche. There were reports that the two skiers who died were not wearing avalanche emergency gear. It’s not known if the four who survived were equipped with avalanche emergency gear.

The avalanche warning level at the time was rated as 3 out of five, which on the Soelden website translates to: “On many steep slopes the snow is only moderately or weakly stable. Avalanches may be triggered on many slopes even if only light loads are applied. On some steeper slopes*, medium or even fairly large spontaneous avalanches may occur.”

Astle was from Utah and Berlack from New Hampshire.

Written By

You may also like:

Tech & Science

The GenAI Collective was launched in San Francisco by a group of AI enthusiasts in February of 2023.

Tech & Science

Australia joins the list of countries imposing a ban on DeepSeek’s usage. This latest country to sign up to a ban adds.

Business

Trump's latest tariff order has sparked fresh anger among Canadians, including business owners.