Avalanche in Chile Kills Three Climbers Amid Rare Snowy Spring Mie Dahl An avalanche killed three climbers and injured four others Saturday afternoon near the Portillo ski resort in the Chilean Andes, northeast of the capital Santiago. The group was climbing in the snow-covered mountains near Laguna del Inca, a high-altitude lake, when an avalanche swept them toward the water at about 2:45 p.m. local time, according to Chile’s disaster agency Senapred. Emergency crews including firefighters, police, paramedics and an aerial police unit were deployed to the area.
Two of the bodies were recovered and a third was still submerged in the lake, police said. Central Chile has experienced a record wave of precipitation in the spring month of October, blanketing the area in fresh snow and flooding parts of Santiago. The Portillo hotel on the lake’s edge has been closed for the season since Oct. 12.
Manuel Millones, presidential envoy for the Valparaíso region, told T13 that the climbers were Chilean visitors rather than hotel guests and, citing information from the owner of Hotel Portillo, said they had been warned not to enter the area.
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