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01:05

The risk of dying in an avalanche in the Alps when hiking or skiing off-piste seems to be decreasing. This is despite the number of freeriders and Alpine tourers rocketing.

"Deadly accidents are decreasing because there is so much information and people are so much more aware of the danger," Arnold Riebenbauer, head of all Alpine clubs in Austria's Carinthia region, told CGTN Europe.

A skier uses a virtual simulator app showing how to respond to an avalanche. /Gasser/CGTN

Riebenbauer and other experts say new online tools are showing safe passages and preventing deadly accidents. One of them is Skitourenguru, a Swiss website which gives skiers a safe route through dangerous snow patches.

"Those new apps bring us a lot of safety because they show how dangerous and how steep each part of the route is," says mountain guide Stefan Filzmoser, who regularly hikes on Austria's snowy peaks in the winter.

Avalanche training for excavating people trapped in the snow. /Gasser/CGTN

But even the best prepared can end up in an avalanche. Radios to locate and shovels to free victims are standard equipment. But witnesses are often overwhelmed and in shock. Austria now offers a virtual reality simulator which lets users practice for such an emergency.

Users must locate and excavate a buried person, although for now the German-language app Notfall Lawine is only accessible with VR glasses.

Even though the risk of dying in snow masses is decreasing, one factor remains constant: Almost all deadly avalanche victims are male. Experts say women tend to be more aware of risky behavior.