 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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| ALQ wrote: |
Errr...maybe not. Looks a bit cold 
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Rule 5.
You can't have the coolest job without getting a bit cool sometimes.
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Yes.
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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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They have guts to go out there as avalanche bait.
Maybe I could just chuck the dynamite from the chopper.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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If one has to do this every week of the season one would hate it.
I used to run a mobile home in a camp site at the bottom of La Flegere and these guys woke me up every now and then in morning with the dynamites. They have to do this right at the beginning of the day before the skiers arrive to make safe the various resorts on both sides of the Chamonix Valley.
They might do a good job to those ski but not much to the residents as in one year an avalanche took out several houses and killed about 10 people in Le Tour.
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| Quote: |
If one has to do this every week of the season one would hate it
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I spent a couple of hours with a pisteur secouriste this last season, opening up the pistes. He was qualified as a dynamite man but not using any that day, on the nonthreatening pistes of Les Saisies. But he clearly loved his job - as did his colleagues, with whom I spent half an hour on their "first coffee and cake break of the day" after all the pistes were open. They are not paid a huge amount - they wouldn't do it if they hated it. One of them was also a qualified high mountain guide and they were all pleasingly enthusiastic and proud of the good job they did. Their shift leader was an older woman who was on her 18th consecutive year!
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| saikee wrote: |
They might do a good job to those ski but not much to the residents as in one year an avalanche took out several houses and killed about 10 people in Le Tour. |
I'm sure you don't mean this as written but the Montroc avalanche was exceptional and I'm not sure how it in any way falls into the remit of Pisteurs to control, surely a municipal or state/department responsibility.
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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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Sometimes it's just not permitted to artificially bring down an avalanche, after particularly heavy snowfalls in Wengen everyone could see an avalanche was inevitable, but the insurers said they would not pay out if damage was done by an avalanche deliberately set off by explosives wheras they would if (when) it came down of its own accord
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fatbob,
I was just wondering would if there are Pisteurs outside the skiing resort to help the local residents to mitigate the avalanche risk. However D G Orf has rightly pointed out there may be opening up a can of worm on the legality if a consequential damage occurs.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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pam w, A day with the pisteurs sounds fun. How did you wrangle that? Or can you just ask to join them?
D G Orf, By setting off a smaller avalanche 1, it may prevent a much bigger and potentially more damaging (in property and lives) avalanche 2. But short termism wins the day yet again 
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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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| Quote: |
A day with the pisteurs sounds fun. How did you wrangle that? Or can you just ask to join them?
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It wasn't a day, just a couple of hours. Great, though. Les Saisies started offering it one morning a week, last season. They take up to four people every Wednesday morning, allocate each to a pisteur, and off to go. They are obviously not going to take holiday-makers anywhere hairy, but it was great whizzing round on newly pisted and totally deserted slopes, checking all the markers (piste bashers knock them over sometimes), checking for no nasty holes, re-erecting the "Slow down" nets as necessary, etc.
I think it's a good thing for resorts to offer. It doesn't cost anything and gives punters a feel for all the effort which goes into keeping the resort safe. The vast majority of the pisteurs (and lift operators) in our area live locally all year round, I was interested to learn - whereas in bigger resorts a lot of them are seasonnaires. My chap spent four summers running a high mountain refuge but now works on explosives for a demolition company - putting his qualification to work. He said he'd had enough solitude and felt he needed a more practical kind of long term summer job.
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Pisteurs charged with looking after the piste and to make it safe is not an enviable job for those working in Stubai Glacier according to this thread.. A Canadian hockey pro snowboarding in the Glacier near a blue run fell into a "nasty hole" - a crevasse supposed to have been cordoned off. The pisteurs did not find him until 14 years later when the glacier melted progressively. The story was published in a book.
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You know it makes sense.
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saikee, yep that was an odd story, lots of theory about the death 
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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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livetoski,
The chilling part of it is it could happen to anyone of us! We ski or snowboard and rely on the resort owner and the pisteurs to look after the safety of the piste for us.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| saikee wrote: |
livetoski,
The chilling part of it is it could happen to anyone of us! We ski or snowboard and rely on the resort owner and the pisteurs to look after the safety of the piste for us. |
Really? When I ski or snowboard I accept a certain amount of personal responsibility acknowledging that I'm not in a theme park and certain natural factors cannot be mitigated entirely. Anyone who is wholly relying on the resort operator or pisteurs is doing the wrong sport IMO.
This isn't to say I'd be happy about unmarked hazards that clearly were known about and neglected (on groomed piste) but if you ski on a glacier I think you have to accept that crevasses are a risk wherever you happen to be and just hope that you aren't unlucky when one opens up in an area you are in which might previously have been hidden by successive grooming and formation of snow bridges.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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saikee, you wrote about a hole "near a blue run". You surely don't expect the resort to make the off-piste glacier safe?
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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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Always fun? probably not. Always safe? definitely not. But "cool?" absolutely! 
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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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I vaguely remember an article about the melting Tignes glacier creating huge underground (or under glacier) caves. They had used a mix of sonar/resonance and bore holes to measure glacier thickness. It's impossible to determine thickness from above ground and cracks can form at almost anytime. These guys go out in all conditions, before everybody else to try to minimise risk; they can never eliminate it.
shep, +1 Definitely!!
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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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snowball,
It was not off piste. He was killed in an area between the drag lift path and the blue run.
See this for yourself Details can be found from this site.
The incident took place in summer skiing on an area full of crevasse holes. The pisteurs inspect the holes everyday and fill them with snow. Some areas were considered unsafe and taped off.
The lad had an hour lesson with an instructor and was left to practice alone later.
It is thought he might have came off the drag lift as a snowboard beginner often does, tried to walk back or might have cross an area between the run and the drag lift path which could have been taped off. He disappeared and his body was found 14 years later.
The huge number of crevasse holes in the glacier is visible today by Google map. Just go to the top of the resort and enlarge the winkles in the snow. These are the crevasses the pisteurs temporarily cover to operate the runs when the resort is opened for skiing.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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I am told they once lost a piste basher down one.
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