Snow tragedy in Tyrol, dies Federico Giubilato

About a hundred meters from the summit he was swept away by an avalanche that left him no chance. Federico Giubilato, 41, a native of Bassano del Grappa, in the province of Vicenza, was hit by a mass of snow more than 250 meters long in the Zillertal valley in the Austrian Tyrol.

The friend who was with him, a 36-year-old Italian, was only partially involved and managed to free himself, immediately raising the alarm. Mountain rescue workers along with two helicopters responded to the scene of the accident. Giubilato was quickly located, under more than two feet of snow, and extracted in less than half an hour, but attempts at resuscitation proved futile.

The fellow hiker suffered only a slight injury to his hand, in addition to severe shock at what had happened. Federico Giubilato would have turned 42 just today. A mechanical engineer, he was a graduate of the University of Padua.