Missing skier found dead after being buried by snow avalanche in Borovets

The body of the skier who was buried by an avalanche in Borovets has been found, Emil Neshev, head of the mountain rescue service told BNT on February 12.

The avalanche fell this afternoon in Borovets winter resort in the area of the Markujik 3 slope. Three snowboarders and one skier were trapped. The three snowboarders managed to dig themselves out, but one remained buried under the snow. The incident was reported to the Mountain Rescue Service around 2:13 p.m. by a witness in the group.

Avalanche buried snowboarders in Borovets, one person missing

25 mountain rescuers and 4 dogs participated in the search. The avalanche was about 150 meters in size and nearly 30 metres wide.

The Mountain Rescue Service warned tourists to avoid the northern, north-eastern and eastern slopes where there are snowdrifts.

"The incident occurred in the area of Markujik 3 around 2 p.m. Snowboarders managed to dig themselves out but the skier is still missing at the moment. Unfortunately, he was not carrying the obligatory safety equipment for off-piste skiing such as an avalanche transceiver, for example. Locating him is very difficult. More than 25 mountain rescuers are working on site, including four rescue dogs trained to search in avalanches, we are also searching with a recco detector. As of today, there is a high avalanche danger warning in the area of northern slopes, northeastern slopes, because there is a huge transport of snow masses due to the winds. Eeveryone should be aware that things are not calm in the mountains, Markudjik 3 three is not working at the moment, so they have gone there on purpose," the head of the rescue service, Emil Neshev, said earlier today.

"The guy who was buried under the snow didn't have an avalanche gear, which made it quite difficult for the rescue team. If he had an avalanche gear we would have found him very quickly. The avalanche was very big, the snow was very thick and the skier was at a very big depth. The dogs were not able to work and did not find him immediately unfortunately and at 19.30 in the evening we found him with a recco detector," said Angel Kerkelev, head of the rescue base "Borovets", MRS.

- At what depth did you find the body of the skier?

Angel Kerkelev: Between 1.60 and 1.80 metres, I think it was, but we are yet to clarify that, we have photos, it was quite deep.