15. 02. 10. - 14:00

Second Austrian night-skiing death in a month

A skier died on Thursday last week of internal injuries suffered two days earlier in a night-skiing accident at the Rangger Köpfl ski area in Tyrol’s Innsbruck-Land district.

Police said on Saturday that the man, 51, had been skiing 300 metres above the valley floor when he skied off the lighted piste and fell. He was found lying 40 metres away from the spot of his fall. The man was taken to Innsbruck clinic, where he died.

It was the second night-skiing death in Austria in one month.

Calls for a ban on night skiing came early this month after a woman was left in a coma and later died at Schladming hospital following an accident as she skied down a mountain in the dark.

Helga Maria B., 45, had been making her way down to the valley floor at 11pm after visiting a mountain hut with pals when she skied into a cable running from a piste-packing machine to a nearby pole and was left hanging by her neck at the Hauser Kaibling ski area in Styria’s Liezen district.

The Styrian cable-car operators’ division of the Styrian Economy Chamber called for a ban on night skiing after the accident.

But division head Peter Lackner said a ban would be difficult to agree on as the interests of authorities and restaurant owners differed.