Alps Avalanches Kill at Least 5 Skiers*

The Associated Press
Sunday, March 4, 2007; 8:20 PM

BERN, Switzerland -- Avalanches killed at least five skiers in the Swiss
and French Alps on Sunday following days of heavy snow, authorities said.

At least four other people died in unrelated mountain accidents.

Two off-piste skiers died in France after being swept up in an avalanche
near the Valloire ski station in the Savoie region, rescuers said.

Authorities did not immediately provide the identities of the victims.

All the Swiss accidents occurred away from prepared slopes and trails in
widely separated parts of the country. None of the victims were
identified. The deaths raised the avalanche death toll for this season
in Switzerland to nine.

The victims included a 26-year-old German who was killed near Klosters
in eastern Switzerland when he was carried off by a sheet of snow that
broke loose, state police said.

A 41-year-old Frenchman was buried by an avalanche above Zermatt in
southern Switzerland, Valais police said. A woman in a six-member group
near Chateau d'Oex in central Switzerland was the third victim.

A snowboarder was carried 700 yards by an avalanche near Verbier in
Valais, but he remained on top of the snow and was only lightly injured,
officials said.

The Swiss Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research in Davos said
avalanche danger remains high, especially at higher elevations where
wind has created large snowdrifts.

Separately, a hiker in snow shoes tumbled to his death off a 15-yard
cliff in the Isere region of Franc, and three climbers died when they
fell near the lakeside city of Lecco in northern Italy, police said.

Authorities said were not sure what caused the climbing accident. A
47-year-old climber was killed instantly, while his companions, a
34-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman, died on the way to hospital,
police said. All three were from Italy's Como area.

*Avalanche at Russian Resort Kills Child*

The Associated Press
Sunday, March 4, 2007; 3:38 PM

1103 ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia -- An avalanche swept into a chairlift Sunday
at a ski resort that is part of Russia's bid for the 2014 Winter
Olympics, killing a 10-year-old child and trapping at least three other
people, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

The avalanche took place at Krasnaya Polyana, one of Russia's best-known
ski centers.

Sergei Petrov, a spokesman for the emergency ministry's southern
district, said the avalanche swept the four people off a chairlift.
About 60 other people were on the lift at the time.

Krasnaya Polyana, in the Caucasus Mountains about 30 miles east of the
Black Sea resort city of Sochi, is visited annually by Russian President
Vladimir Putin for a skiing holiday.