 "The Ortles mountain range, where the avalanche took place on Saturday.")
Five German mountaineers have died after being engulfed by a devastating avalanche in the Ortles mountain range of northern Italy. The bodies of the last two victims, identified as a man and his 17-year-old daughter, were recovered on Sunday morning, completing a tragic weekend search effort.
The incident occurred at approximately 4 pm on Saturday while the climbers were ascending a route near the Cima Vertana peak, at an altitude exceeding 3,500 metres (11,500ft). Rescue officials noted the late hour of the ascent as an unusual detail.
Alpine rescue spokesperson Federico Catania confirmed that the five individuals were dragged to the lower part of a gully where the avalanche struck. The initial recovery operation on Saturday located the bodies of three other victims—two men and a woman.
According to initial reports, the climbers were operating in three separate groups.
Two other mountaineers survived the accident and were evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in the nearby city of Bolzano. Rescue operations were concluded shortly after the final bodies were found, as teams returned to the valley amid worsening weather conditions at high altitude.
The South Tyrol region, home to the Ortles mountains, is a highly popular destination for German tourists and mountaineers, but also experiences one of the highest annual death tolls from avalanches in the Italian Alps.