Three skiers die and another is injured by an avalanche in Panticosa (Huesca)

Huesca.- Three skiers, two men and a woman, died this Monday and another woman was injured after being hit by an avalanche while practicing mountain skiing on the west slope of the Tablato peak, in the area of the Balneario de Panticosa, in the Pyrenees of Huesca, along with two other mountaineers who were unharmed. 

One of the mountaineers who has not suffered injuries has given the alert around 13:00 hours and immediately the deployment of specialists from the Civil Guard has been activated in the body’s medicalized helicopter to assist the victims, whose death has occurred due to the ice blows suffered in the drag, since only one of them was semi-buried. Apparently, according to what has been explained from the area by the Government delegate in Aragon, Fernando Beltrán, the breaking of a large ice sheet at about 2,200 meters of altitude has triggered the avalanche that has claimed the lives of the three skiers.

Although it was initially spread from the Aragonese Government that the three mountaineers came from the Basque Country, sources from the Civil Guard have confirmed to EFE that one of the deceased is the Zaragoza doctor Jorge García Dihinx, who practiced at the San Jorge Hospital in Huesca, an expert mountaineer very active on social networks who used to carry out these activities with his partner.

Evacuated an injured skier and two unharmed mountaineers

After certifying the death of the three skiers and proceeding with the evacuation of the injured skier and the two unharmed mountaineers, the Civil Guard has prepared the bodies, pending the judicial order for removal, for their transfer to facilities of the Institute of Legal Medicine of Aragon.

As explained by the president of the Aragonese Government, Jorge Azcón, who has canceled his agenda to travel to the area, the three deceased were expert mountaineers, well-known in the area and with knowledge of meteorology, so he has attributed what happened to “bad luck”, despite recognizing that in the mountains there is no zero risk. According to mountaineers consulted by EFE, the accident area is usually frequented by mountain skiing enthusiasts and they have pointed out the lack of snowpack settlement as the triggering factor of the avalanche.