 Poster: A snowHead
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
Methinks...BS!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
I am somewhat amazed anyone could survive overnight with no shelter.
Also, in France they had piste markers in the 80s, didn't Austria?
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
Sounds perfectly plausible to me. It's certainly an interesting story. Many years ago, a bloke in our Chalet did something similar, skied down a closed run and got stuck at the bottom, had to walk back in ski boots and didn't materialise until 8pm. Easily done!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
Sorry about the repost.
Though I posted as I thought the local Austrian reactions to his pleas for help the most extraordinary part of his story. As a commenter below the article mentions:
"Austrian psychologist Erwin Ringel described the national character in his book, The Austrian Soul, likening his country to a house with two rooms - one perfectly tidy and neat; the other a locked room in which hideous, unnamed horrors lurk."
To those who doubt the veracity of the story, that's also discussed in the comments below the article. The Guardian run these stories - which are almost all extreme and 'unbelievable' - weekly and I'm sure they fact check.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Let's hope their fact checking is better than their reputation for spell checking.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@jellylegs, walking home in the evening is not spending two nights in an unheated shelter or out of doors...
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
|
We had a guy spend the night this winter, the crazy part is be skied below the lifts in the morning and for some ready just stayed there till the next morning when be hiked back inbounds.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Having a hard time believing this. He's on a (not very high) mountain that is literally surrounded by villages on all sides. Ok, so he falls down a ravine, but manages to free himself, and then spends two days in sight of villages and piste lights etc. Wot? Maybe there are some unfriendly Austrian farmers around those parts. I have yet to meet any, and have been skiing those parts since 85, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
Probably got wasted in a bar and spent a couple of nights in a brothel, the 'getting lost' story would be more palatable to the wife. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
|
@king key,
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
So this guy survived being out all night after:
| Quote: |
| I needed to cross a brook, so I stepped on what I thought was a snow-covered rock and fell through. Freezing water came up to chest height. |
A miracle... or BS?
@king key's explanation seems more probable. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
^
If you fall into freezing water you are pretty likely to die of cold water shock there and then. There is lots of emphasis on this in the sailing first-aid course I have to get signed off on every 3 years, much of the material coming from naval training. Unfortunately people do fall into rivers in skiing resorts e.g. the Isere in Val and mostly they die, despite being in the middle of a resort. Fall into a chest-deep river, get yourself out and survive a further 24 hours in the open, in the Alps in January? It does stretch credulity.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
@dogwatch,
To be fair people have survived nights out at over 7000m in the Himalayas where it would be a lot colder than Alps in January. I'm not saying it would be pleasant or less than dangerous but it is survivable.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
@dogwatch, and this was after he's already spent one night in a shepherds hut, then submerged his feet in a frozen stream. I don't believe that he could have survived being chest deep in a stream then outside overnight without a complete change of clothes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
| jedster wrote: |
@dogwatch,
To be fair people have survived nights out at over 7000m in the Himalayas where it would be a lot colder than Alps in January. I'm not saying it would be pleasant or less than dangerous but it is survivable. |
It's fair to assume that anyone going up to 7000m is both incredibly fit/competent and better equipped than a typical piste skier though 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
| jedster wrote: |
To be fair people have survived nights out at over 7000m in the Himalayas |
Not after a dunking in a freezing stream, which was my point.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
@clarky999, @dogwatch, quite. People who go up everest are generally prepared with survival gear to spend a night exposed at 7000m. People who go out for a day piste skiing check they have their credit card to pay for lunch and possibly a hip flask for a cheeky nip at elevenses. Hardly comparable.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
Having been involved a couple of times with dragging people out of creeks, I think that is hard to imagine. Both times I remember the victim was about 3m down and could not self rescue at all; getting them out was a logistical challenge. They needed immediate heli evac, and it felt life threatening to me. If you didn't have radios/ heli, I guess you'd need to strip the victim and re-clothe them in stuff from the party.... hardly possible here.
It sounds far fetched. A quick google shows no other evidence. It's an old tale, but even so, there's nothing out there.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
I said, “Water, water.”
Whilst surrounded by snow and having fallen in two streams
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Quote: |
@clarky999, @dogwatch, quite. People who go up everest are generally prepared with survival gear to spend a night exposed at 7000m.
|
actually often not
In mountaineering their is a painful trade-off between going light and fast to avoid being benighted and the consequences of an enforced night out if things go wrong. So it is not unusual that people have to survive a night without sleeping bags/bivvy bags/stoves etc
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@Themasterpiece, haha, indeed. Also struggling to understand why the search party wasn't out in force after he was missing for 1 night, never mind 2.
@jedster, yes, granted, but the point still stands.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
It may be ok to fall in a stream if you are wearing a full Buffalo style pertex/pile clothing system/ Roll in the snow to dry it out then a bit of exercise to create more warmth. Doubt this bloke was wearing that combination though.
I've had to dig in during severe mountain storms before and it isn't easy surviving even with full kit. Perhaps his adventure was during a rare Janurary heat wave. Plus, although the Austrian mountain folk can appear a bit dour in my experience they would go out of their way to help anyone.
I can see it now... a knock on the door, "Oh no, Heidi, it's that drunken British bloke again, last night he wanted to sleep in the goat shed, this is the fifth time this week, pretend we don't speak English".
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This story reminds me of the ridiculous film that won all those Oscars a year or 2 ago - The Remnant or something? Had a bloke wandering about in deep snow after wading through a river and then eventually sleeping inside a dead horse after falling off a cliff. All completely risible.
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
@Gordyjh, the Revenant was based on this chaps tale of 2 days surviving in someones back garden just above an Austrian village. Not a lot of people know that.
|
|
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
@Gordyjh, given the choice between getting scalped by a bunch of irate natives and sleeping in a dead horse I'd take the horse any day*. But yes, you do have a point.
*Or was the film where the guy slept in a dead cow to avoid getting strung up by a bunch of English chaps in red coats?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
| Dr John wrote: |
| @dogwatch, and this was after he's already spent one night in a shepherds hut, then submerged his feet in a frozen stream. I don't believe that he could have survived being chest deep in a stream then outside overnight without a complete change of clothes. |
The author of the original article is Yeti and I claim my £5.00.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
|
@snowglider,
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
@Steilhang, Given the choice, yes. I just thought it faintly ridiculous he fell off a cliff before sleeping in the dead horse when he had already waded through freezing water before floundering about in deep snow - it stretched credulity a little! (I am talking as one of the most gullible people in the world).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
