Court convicts mountain guide over fatal 2023 avalanche

SRF reported that a mountain guide was convicted in Thun on Friday of multiple counts of negligent homicide over a 2023 ski tour in which two teenagers were killed by an avalanche near Meiringen. The tour’s co-leader was acquitted.

The mountain guide had been primarily responsible for the tour involving students from the Ecole d’Humanité boarding school in Hasliberg. On the afternoon of March 21, 2023, the group was travelling near Gstelliwang in the Bernese Oberland with a tour guide and the mountain guide.

Avalanche warning level two, indicating moderate danger, was in force that day. The bulletin warned of an old snow problem above 2,200 metres, particularly on north-facing slopes.

After a safe first descent on the eastern side of Gstelliwang, the group made a second descent on a different and steeper part of the slope. An avalanche broke loose there, burying an 18-year-old American and an 18-year-old Briton. Both died.

A report by the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research concluded that the first route had been exemplary and differed significantly from the route on which the accident occurred.

The mountain guide and the tour guide faced trial this week on multiple counts of negligent homicide. The mountain guide has now been convicted.