Two prospects from the U.S. Ski Team were killed in an avalanche Monday while skiing near their European training base in the Austrian Alps.

The U.S. ski team said Ronnie Berlack, 20, and Bryce Astle, 19, died in the incident near the Rettenbach glacier near Soelden, the venue for the annual season-opening World Cup races.

Berlack, from Franconia, New Hampshire, and Astle, from Sandy, Utah, were part of a group of six skiers who were descending from the 3,056-meter Gaislachkogel when they left the prepared slope and apparently set off the avalanche. The other four skied out of the slide and escaped unhurt.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2897549/Two-U-S-ski-team-prospects-aged-19-20-die-Austrian-avalanche-setting-avalanche-training-glacier.html#ixzz3NzD4JQ00 
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Ronnie Berlack
Franconia, NH/Burke Mountain, VT
Franconia Ski Club/Burke Mountain Academy
Birthdate: Apr. 21, 1994 (20)

New Hampshire native Ronnie Berlack, 20, earned a spot on the U.S. Ski Team’s Development Team following a spring 2013 tryout camp at Mammoth Mountain. He had been a student at Vermont’s Burke Mountain Academy. He had finished 11th in downhill and 17th in super G at the 2013 U.S. Alpine Championships in Squaw Valley. He was off to a strong season last year before suffering a knee injury last January. He had come back, competing in South American Cup races in Chile this summer and in NorAm and FIS races last month in Canada.