 Poster: A snowHead
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Has there been a thread pointing out the main factors causing avalanche danger?
I’ve several times been close to smaller avalanches, and one of them caught our guide. (He was OK).
However a short while ago I decided to write an account of the one I'd been in. In our case the conditions seemed relatively safe, so there are few lessons to learn except that you can never be complaisant.
Well, here it is.
Has anyone else had an experience like this?
Avalanche near Saint Foix.
“Look out” someone shouted, but before I could turn I was struck from behind by what I assumed was a very heavy skier, who knocked me flat and pinned me face down with all his weight as we slid uncontrollably down the slope. Then I realised I was in an avalanche.
I had arrived in Val d’Isere that morning to join the second week of an off-piste skiing holiday. The others had been skiing for a week but I had come by overnight ski-train ahead of the new influx.
It hadn’t snowed for a while and the off-piste was skied-out; so one of guides had offered to lead a day tour from Saint Foix. It’s not much skied there and has some good off-piste, so I decided to go.
We were already a large group of seven, but the 3 leaders were having their day off and wanted to go as well. They decided to follow, lagging a little behind so as not to count as part of the group.
We were driven by mini-bus down to Saint Foix, a small resort between Bourg St. Maurice and Val d’Isere. It wa a fine morning, clear and sunny with crisp snow.
After several lifts we arrived at the top of the ski area and started off straight ahead on a long traverse, leaving the lifts and pistes behind.
After a mile or so we stopped and took off our skis and applied the skins to our ski bases with varying degrees of skill. We stripped off our jackets and started a long diagonal up the mountain.
We climbed steadily for about an hour and a half, passing left through what had seemed a coll into a flatish area between peaks, perhaps a small summer lake, and finally, refusing the obvious coll ahead, climbed a bit further up to the Coll d’Argentiere.
We rested and took off our skins. The start would be quite tricky.
Although generally the snow was well settled, the start was shaded and still soft. There was a steep gully that any snowslide would take us into so we went one at a time to minimise the stress on the slope.
Collecting around the corner, after a short steep section we surveyed a magnificent, wide, even slope, streatching untracked for about half a mile. The snow here was settled and not steep. Perhaps 30º at the start but soon reducing to 25º and running out onto gentle slopes below.
“OK”, the guide told us, “you can just ski as you like now”.
He started down and we all followed in rapid succession.
I was third in the bunch and concentrating on my turns when I heard someone call “Look out”.
Perhaps if I didn’t have a tinitus I might have had some warning, but it wouldn’t have made much difference. The avalanche struck me from behind and hurled me onto my face, pinning me there as I was propelled on what must have been the forward edge of the snow mass, rapidly down the slope, my arms spread in front of me as I tried to keep my face above a cloud of snow, sliding down and down as though we would never stop, totally unable to make any choices, just being carried helplessly till the pounding eased and I found myself lying stationary in a heap of tumbled chunks of snow, totally winded.
I rolled half onto my side and realised I wasn’t buried. I tried to take a gulp of air but I couldn’t. I had inhaled snow and my mouth and throat were clogged with it. I spat and then managed to cough up a chunk of the snow. I could just draw in a little stream of air but I wanted to ghasp it in. Keep calm I said to myself, you won’t suffocate. Just wait and the rest will melt.
All I could do was half sit , half lie, for several minutes unable to respond to the shouts behind me and someone calling my name.
Slowly my airway cleared and I recovered from my battering. Eventually I was able to look around.
I was in a wilderness of lumped and tumbled snow, about 30 yards from the final front edge. behind me the scattering of debris led up and up to distant figures. I had been carried about 300yards.
It turned out the last person of our main group had set it off on the rest of us. He must have skied some critical bit that we hadn’t.
The 3 group leaders following us had seen him ride a raft of crust for a few seconds before falling into the tumbling snow.
He and the guide ended up below me and the others deposited at various points down the slope.
Amazingly the only one needing to be dug out a little was the guide. He was swearing steadily (it was his first avalanche too, as a guide anyway).
Other than a couple of slight strains and lots of bruises we were all miraculously unhurt.
The steady, gradually easing slope had prevented the snow piling up and had simply let it run out of energy.
One of the women was crying in shocked reaction.
Initially we seven found we had lost all our equipment , but as people picked their way down the slope they collected about half the skis and sticks, and even a few hats and goggles. I was lucky, I finally had both skis and a very bent stick and borrowed another.
We were many miles from the bottom and in a different valley from the pistes. We had to call a helicopter to take those without skis home.
Finally it arrived and the others climbed in as the guide and the leaders and I, and one other, skied off to complete the run.
Later that week we made three lines in the local paper. Some English skiers in an avalanche at Col d’Argentiere. No one hurt.
Nothing important.
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Thu 21-02-08 12:24; edited 8 times in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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yikes. Scarey.
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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?
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I'm just beginning to take my first tentative steps off piste....this is scary stuff for a beginner! I think I might end up as "one of the women crying"....but at least I now know not to panic about clogged airways...I'll just tell myself it'll melt, I don't think that would have occurred to me!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Very interesting account of events. I wonder how others would react to the situation. Very lucky for all concerned too, but I with an id like 'snowball' are you not tempting fate a little?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Anyone any idea or stories of how having a snowboard strapped to your feet affects you in an avalanche?
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homphomp, worry if you can't breathe at all!
Not a bad article, Jonpim . Its also worth noting that the off-pist often gets unstable in the afternoons on hot days, as crusts soften and water percolates down to unstable layer-interfaces.
Colin Vince, I'm hoping I've had my ration now. I've skied 90 percent off-piste for well over a decade, 3 weeks per year, though mostly with guides (which produced the 2 experiences I've mentioned) One of the others was 20 years ago when I'd been misdirected by a tour-rep after a barbecue and found myself accidentally on my own off-piste ( It was thawing and I found myself on a convex slope near some avalanche barriers, above small cliff. A crack appeared in the snow above me and the snow below me went over the edge !!! Several people died that day in the Alps.) The final one was with some friends, skirting a drop when an avalanche went off a couple of meters below us. I think we were fairly safe where we were, though.
Just to confirm you in thinking I'm taking too many risks, however, I'll put in the account I mentioned in another thread that I had published in the Daily Mail Ski Magazine. They hacked it about a bit, and I'm keen to put it out in its original form:
I've titled it VictoriaFall .
,
Last edited by Then you can post your own questions or snow reports... on Thu 27-01-05 11:59; edited 4 times in total
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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.
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Maybe the 'tache acts as a shock absorber ! 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Unfortunately I forgot to change into cool sunglasses before the pic.
Me, a girl! Well a waiter did call me madame last week. (It was the pony-tail)
David.
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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.
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snowball, and pole straps on too! Very, VERY bad boy!! 
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I'm not so sure the pole straps were on. I hardly ever put them on, even when I'm not in trees.
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You know it makes sense.
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Jonpim, I should have called myself snowballs.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| snowball wrote: |
| a waiter did call me madame last week. (It was the pony-tail) |
No, snowball, it was the moustache. 
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Poster: A snowHead
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It would be interesting to hear if davidof has had any close calls. He is off piste more often than not, and was away ski touring last week, not the best of conditions at the time.
I've mentioned it elsewhere, I've witnessed a few minor slides, including one on the Tignes glacier a couple of weeks ago, but nothing too hair-raising. And set off one while snow-shoeing, which taught me a valuable lesson in my early days in the mountains! A shallow slope too, early morning, but no frost overnight, several inches of heavy wet snow on the ground, no bonding - the inevitable happened.
'Enjoyed' reading your graphic account snowball.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Dan wrote: |
| Anyone any idea or stories of how having a snowboard strapped to your feet affects you in an avalanche? |
Any boarders know about this? It sounds like a big extra danger for snowboarders.
It's very important that your skis come off at once in an avalanche or the powerful (but possibly slow) twisting of body and skis by the snow can cause horrific damage to legs etc. Some people say you should try to twist off your own skis as soon as you realise you are caught.
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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?
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Hey, why didn't the quote thing work!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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snowball, I think you have "Always allow BBCode:" set to "no" in your profile so the codes do not translate. You can allow BBcode on a post by post basis and I've just set your last post to do so. Only you can make the change to your profile - the appropriate question is about 2/3 way down from the top.
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