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

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

Berlack, from Franconia, N.H., 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.

Officials in the Tyrolean region said an avalanche alert had been declared for the area after days of heavy snowfall and mild temperatures.

The tragedy has left the U.S. Ski Team “in shock,” Alpine director Patrick Riml told The Associated Press in Croatia, Zagreb, where the American slalom team was preparing for a World Cup race on Tuesday.