Caroline Best
Two
U.S. Ski Team prospects were killed on Monday, January 5, when an avalanche was
triggered. According to Fox News, they were training in the Austrian Alps for
an international competition. Eric Willemsen of the Associated Press reports
that an avalanche alert had been declared prior to the incident, because of
recent heavy snowfall and mild temperatures.
Ronnie Berlack, 20, and Bryce Astle, 19, were
skiing near the Rettenbach glacier in the mountains over Soelden. According to
Christopher Kamrani of The Salt Lake Tribune, Berlack and Astle were part of a
group of six skiers descending from the 10,026-foot Gaislachkogel. The four
other skiers were able to escape unharmed.
According
to Tom Kelly, spokesperson for the United States Ski & Snowboard
Association (USSA), Monday wasn’t a training day. He said that the six skiers
were free skiing the mountain when the avalanche occurred. The Salt Lake
Tribune reported that Kelly said “rescuers were able to extricate them in a
moderate amount of time, but they were pronounced dead on the scene."
Berlack,
who grew up in New Hampshire, was a member of the Franconia Ski Club. Fox News
reports that Berlack was a student-athlete at Vermont’s Burke Mountain Academy.
After two top-20 finishes at the 2013 U.S. national championships and a spring
tryout camp, he was named to the development team for potential World Cup
racers.
Rich
Smith, program director at the Franconia Ski Club told the Associated Press
“there’s not enough words to say what a great guy Ronnie Berlack was and always
will be.” Both of Berlack’s parents are ski coaches and his father is a ski
coach for Burke Mountain Academy.
Astle
was one of the top-ranked slalom skiers in the U.S. Fox News explained that after two top-10
results at NorAm Cup and other impressive early season results, he was invited
to train with the development team. In a post on a U.S. Ski and Snowboard site,
Astle explained how he was ready for the next level. He said he was ready to
achieve his goals and greatness.
Astle
grew up in Utah and graduated from Brighton High School. The Salt Lake Tribune
mourned his death in an article that expresses the shock of Astle’s friends and
mentors. Andy Siddoway, one of Astle’s best friends, described him as “one of
the happiest kids I ever met” and “in love with skiing.”
This
incident came as a shock to these two U.S. Team prospect’s friends, family,
mentors, and hometowns. Laura Astle, Astle’s mother told the Associated Press
that her son “was hoping to be in the next Olympics, that was his goal, and he
was pretty much on his way."
Katie
Ryan, a member of the Alpine B Team, reflects on this incident by posting on
her blog, according to CNN. She posted about the risks skiers face by saying "It
could have been any one or all of those six boys caught in that avalanche. It
could have been any two of my teammates. It could have been me."
