Three people lost their lives in an avalanche that broke away on the eastern ridge of Punta Valgrande, a 2,856-meter peak in the Lepontine Alps on the border between the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola and Switzerland, in the municipality of Trasquera.
The victims are Matteo Auguadro, Enzo Bonini and Matteo Lomazzi. They lived in Verbania.
The tragedy occurred today, Sunday 12 January, shortly after midday.
The three were walking up the mountain with crampons together with two friends, then they were supposed to go back down on skis.
They were walking in single file along a path already used by other ski mountaineers when the enormous mass of snow that broke away from the slope. The first two in line were only grazed by the avalanche, which instead swept away Auguadro, Lomazzi and Bonini, dragging them 400 meters below.
There was nothing that could be done, despite the immediate alarm and the searches started immediately by the two survivors and other people who witnessed the accident, who began digging.
The helicopters of Azienda Zero Piemonte and the Gdf arrived on site, together with the technicians of the Alpine Rescue and the financial police of the Sagf. The two survivors were transported to the hospital: they did not suffer serious injuries but are in shock. Attempts to revive the other three, who died due to the trauma suffered during the dragging towards the valley, were useless.
In the Northern Lepontine Alps area, according to the Arpa bulletin, above 2100 meters the avalanche risk was level 3, that is, 'marked'. "That area is at more than two thousand meters, there is nothing to do except ski off-piste," explained the mayor of Trasquera, Geremia Magliocco. "Up there you can only go with snowshoes or by helicopter," he added.
One of the victims, Matteo Auguadro, 48, was a well-known sailor. In September 2022, as a bowman, he won the world title in the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup category in the waters of Porto Cervo and from 2004 to 2007 he was part of the Mascalzone Latino crew. Married, he leaves behind a wife and two children.
(Online Union)