With up to 2 metres of snow across the Northern Alps, the heavy snowfall is set to continue.
On Monday, as a precautionary measure, the Austrian resort of Hochkars was completely evacuated due the high avalanche risk.
“We have to bring everyone down from the mountain, both guests and staff. As far as I know, this has never happened in the history of Hochkars, but we can not guarantee medical care at the moment,” Friedrich Fahrnberger, the resort’s mayor, told local NÖN news.
Thousands were left stranded across large areas of the Austrian & Bavarian Alps. People had been trapped in ski resorts, cut off from the outside world. The issue has not been the quantity of snowfall, but the metre of snow falling in only 24 hours, which has created dangerous roads and an avalanche risk.
With all the excess snow falling in such a short space of time, many Austrian ski resorts have issued their second highest avalanche warnings.
Four have been killed in avalanches and deep snow, with two more Austrians missing. This is on top of the four missing, presumed dead, after an avalanche in Norway last week.
