Bratislava, Jan 4 (CTK) – The Slovak Tatra mountains claimed another three lives in the first days of the new year, raising the winter season´s hitherto death toll to seven, Mountain Rescue Service director Jozef Janiga told a press conference yesterday.
The rescuers registered a total of 152 injuries, including seven fatal ones, since December 23.
Another six deaths have been announced by the Polish rescuers who operate on the Polish side of the Tatras.
Three mountaineers and one tourist, all Slovak nationals, lost their lives in the High Tatras on December 30.
One day later, another Slovak tourist was found dead in Belianske Tatry, the Tatra´s easternmost range.
On January 2, a young Slovak ski-mountaineer died on a trip in Rohace, the western part of the Tatras.
On January 3, a Slovak mountain climber had a fatal fall from almost 200 metres from the Predna Basta peak in the High Tatras.
“It is a high, alarming number [of fatalities],” Janiga said.
He said the common denominator of all these tragic accidents was sliding on a very hard, iced snow, followed by an uncontrolled fall.
The group that bothers rescuers most of all are “ski-mountaineers and would-be mountain climbers who may have good equipment but they do not know how to use it,” Janiga said.
