13 people died in Italian mountains over last week as Olympics start

A grounds 13 backcountry skiers, climbers and hikers person died successful the Italian mountains implicit the past week, rescuers said Monday, including 10 successful avalanches triggered by an exceptionally unstable snowpack, arsenic Winter Olympic competitions got underway.

Fresh snowfall during caller storms and wind-swept snowcaps connected anemic interior layers person created particularly risky conditions on the full Alpine crescent bordering France, Switzerland and Austria, Italy's alpine rescuers said.

''Under specified conditions, the transition of a azygous skier, oregon earthy overloading from the value of snow, tin beryllium capable to trigger an avalanche,'' said Federico Catania, Italy's Alpine Rescue Corps spokesman.

The avalanche deaths occurred connected ungroomed slopes, distant from well-maintained and monitored Olympic sites successful Lombardy connected the Swiss borderline and Cortina d'Ampezzo successful Veneto, arsenic good arsenic cross-country skiing successful Val di Fiemme successful the autonomous state of Trentino.

"There is nary information for radical skiing wrong managed skis resorts, and successful peculiar nary risks to the Olympic sites,'' Catania said. "All of these areas are perpetually monitored and are mostly harmless careless of Olympic events.''

With a spate of caller snowstorms, radical person been rushing to the mountains during little windows of bully weather, "and arsenic a effect the fig of accidents, and truthful fatalities, has accrued proportionally,'' Catania said.

Rescuers counsel radical making backcountry excursions to heed avalanche bulletins and to hold outings until the snowpack has consolidated.

Over the play alone, 2 skiers died successful avalanches successful Lombardy, 3 successful Trentino and 1 successful neighboring South Tyrol. They included 2 who died successful abstracted avalanches successful the country of the Marmolada glacier.

Italian Alpine rescuers astatine the country of an avalanche that occurred Feb. 5, 2026, supra Solda, successful South Tyrol, Italy, sidesplitting 2 members of a radical of skis mountaineers. Italian Alpine Rescue via AP

The deaths besides included 2 hikers connected Monte Grappa successful Veneto and successful the Marche portion on the Appenine range, arsenic good arsenic an crystal climber successful Valle d'Aosta.

The aforesaid Alpine Rescue Corps besides carried retired the chopper rescue of U.S. downhill skier Lindsey Vonn, aft she crashed during contention successful Cortina d'Ampezzo connected Sunday.

The Italian infirmary wherever she's being treated released a connection Sunday saying Vonn suffered a fractured limb successful "a nasty fall" during her women's downhill race. On Monday, Vonn posted a note connected societal media, the archetypal connection straight from the prima since the crash.

Last month, 3 abstracted avalanches successful neighboring Austria killed 8 skiers.

In:

• Avalanche
• Italy