The U.S. ski team suffered a tragic loss Monday when two of its young prospects were killed in an avalanche near its training base in the Austrian Alps, the Associated Press reported.

Bryce Astle, a 19-year-old from Sandy, Utah, and Ronnie Berlack, a 20-year-old with ties to Franconia, New Hampshire and Burke Mountain, Vermont, died in the incident near the Rettenbach glacier, where the annual season-opening World Cup races take place.

The two were part of a group of six who descended from the 3,056-meter Gaislachkogel, the AP noted. Astle and Berlack apparently left the prepared slope and apparently set off the avalanche; the remaining four skiers escaped unhurt.

"Ronnie and Bryce were both outstanding ski racers who were passionate about their sport -- both on the race course and skiing the mountain," U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association President Tiger Shaw said in a statement. "Our hearts go out to the Berlack and Astle families, as well as to their extended sport family. Both of them loved what they did and conveyed that to those around them."

Officials in the Tyrolean region told the AP that an avalanche alert had been in place for days due to heavy snowfall and mild temperatures. The warning had risen to a Level 3 on a scale of five, the local Tiroler Tageszeitung noted.

More than 60 mountain rescuers, Alpine police and rescue canines participated in the search for the American skiers, who did not carry any emergency equipment, the Austrian newspaper said. They were eventually recovered dead under some 3 to 4 meters of snow.

Later in the afternoon, two more avalanches were reported in the western Austrian state of tyrol, and a local skier was injured, according to the local publication.

The U.S. ski team had invited Astle to Austria this season after he had posted strong early season results, including two top-10 NorAm Cup races last month in Canada, the organization said.

Berlack, a student-athlete at Vermont's Burke Mountain Academy, had been named to the group's Development Team following two top-20s at the 2013 U.S. Alpine Championships and a spring tryout camp.