Avalanche kills five climbers, including a father and his teenage daughter, in northern Italy

Five German climbers died after being hit by an avalanche in South Tyrol, northern Italy, rescuers said on Sunday.

Three victims, two men and a woman, had already been recovered dead on Saturday, while the bodies of two other missing people, a man and his 17-year-old daughter, were found on Sunday morning.

“They had been dragged to the bottom of the ravine where the avalanche occurred,” said Alpine rescue services spokesman Federico Catania. “Rescue teams are now returning to the valley, also considering the worsening weather conditions at high altitude.”

The climbers, all German, were hit by the avalanche around 4:00 p.m. on Saturday while ascending near the Cima Vertana, in the Ortles mountains, at more than 3,500 meters above sea level. It is unknown why the climbers were still climbing at this relatively late hour, rescuers said.

Officials said the search operation, which included a helicopter and drones, was coordinated by several agencies, including the Solda Alpine Rescue Station, Alpine Rescue and firefighters.

According to first information, the climbers were in three groups and were traveling independently of each other. Two men survived the crash and were taken by helicopter to a hospital in the nearby city of Bolzano.

South Tyrol is a popular mountaineering region among German tourists. The highest peak in the region is Ortles, at 3,905 meters.

Avalanche accidents are a persistent problem in the Italian Alps, with the country recording one of the highest 10-year annual death averages among major ski countries. The victims are usually mountain skiers or freeriders.

Some analyzes suggest that the number of accidents has increased in recent years, possibly because more people head to rural areas immediately after a new snowfall.

Avalanches have killed climbers, skiers and workers around the world this year. In June, a skier died after being caught in an avalanche on Alaska’s Mount McKinley. The month before that, the bodies of five skiers were found on a glacier above the Swiss resort town of Zermatt, and another person died after an avalanche in a town north of there.

At the end of February, four workers died after an avalanche swept away a large construction crew working on a road near India’s mountainous border with Tibet. That same month, an avalanche in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains delicate two backcountry skiers and another died in an avalanche near South Lake Tahoe in California.

Last month, the body of a skier who disappeared in an avalanche in Alaska in March.

In the United States, avalanches kill between 25 and 30 people each winter, according to the National Avalanche Center. In the 2024-2025 season, 23 people died in avalanches.