Five German mountaineers have died in an avalanche in South Tyrol, northern Italy, it was reported on Sunday.
Three victims – two men and a woman – were already found dead on Saturday, and the bodies of two other missing persons, a man and a 17-year-old daughter, were found on Sunday morning.
“They have been taken to the bottom of the ravine where the avalanches occurred,” said Federico Catania, spokesman for the rescue of the Alps. “The rescue teams are now returning to the valley, taking into account the bad weather conditions at the height.”
The climbers, all German, were hit by the avalanche around 4pm on Saturday while climbing near Cima Vertana in the Ortles mountains, at an altitude of more than 11,500 metres. It is not known why the climbers were still relatively late at this time, rescuers said.
Authorities said The search operation, which included helicopters and drones, was coordinated by several agencies, including the Solda Alpine Rescue station, Alpine Rescue and the fire department.
According to the initial information, the climbers were in three groups and were moving independently of each other. Two men survived the crash and were taken by helicopter to a hospital in the nearby city of Bolzano.
National Alpine and Caving Rescue Corps (CNSAS) 
South Tyrol is a popular hiking 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 average fatality rates among major skiing nations. The victims are often ski-alpinists or free-riders.
Some analyzes suggest that the number of accidents has increased in recent years, possibly due to more people moving into the backcountry immediately after fresh snow.
Avalanches have killed climbers, skiers and workers around the world this year. In June, the skier died After being caught in an avalanche on Alaska’s Mount McKinley. The month before that, the bodies of five skiers They were found on a glacier above the Swiss resort of Zermatt, and another person died in 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 highway near India’s mountainous border with Tibet. That same month, an avalanche in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains die two backcountry skiers and another died in an avalanche near South Lake Tahoe in California.
last month, a skier’s body who disappeared in an Alaskan avalanche in March was found.
In the US, avalanches kill between 25 and 30 people each winter National Avalanche Center. In the 2024-2025 season, 23 people died in avalanches.