 Poster: A snowHead
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In case you missed it:
http://pistehors.com/review-of-french-avalanche-incidents-for-the-winter-2014-15-24065974.htm
Key takeouts if you don't want to click the link
Ski tourers, often local to the mountains and experienced remain the first victims of avalanches, especially when you consider numbers (there are 100x as many people going off piste as ski touring). Take care with climbing route choice and especially group spacing on slopes.
Airbags: Good on risk 2 and typical risk 3 days on obstacle free slopes. Can get overwhelmed in big slides typical of "upper" risk 3 days and above.
Experience. As well as local, experienced skiers there were 6 groups accompanied by high mountain guides, one with a ski instructor and two professionals. That's about a quarter of the fatal incidents.
There were the usual collection of skiers alone or losing contact with their group, skiing without beacons and also skiing in poor weather which makes fast and efficient rescue extremely complicated. 2 people were also injured on piste by avalanches triggered by off piste skiers above.
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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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davidof, thank you for that. Excellent. I've read your full article and the associated links.
Thoughtful stuff.
I travel with the usual equipment, never alone, and always with Guides or knowledgable veterans.
But, on reflection, may not be so good with the spacing, and definitely poor at stopping at good safe spots.
I remain sceptical about Airbags.
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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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Maybe worth a thread on its own? I'm a bit sceptical about some of the claims. Surely when Whymper arrived half a gen later the locals would have said "oh year, done that, mate, but here are some other summits you can try". The Barre des Ecrins would have been massive given it was the highest summit in France at the time.
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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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This breaks it down by region and a lot lot more
http://www.anena.org/7468-bilan-des-accidents-d-avalanche-2014-2015.htm
So basically if you ski tour in the Hautes Alpes you're at far greater risk - brilliant 
Seriously it was numbing last year hearing of so many incidents very close to where we tour, and in fact we did become far far more cautious especially in January.
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Very interesting and useful, thanks. Anywhere that compiles breakdown of perceived causes / mistakes? I appreciate that may be controversial / hurtful for victims.
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I'm not too proud to say that I have a completely irrational, or maybe slightly partially rational, phobia of avalanches. Maybe linked to a bit of fear of enclosed spaces but whatever is behind it has meant that i've never wanted to go seriously off piste after years of skiing.
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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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| 8611 wrote: |
| Very interesting and useful, thanks. Anywhere that compiles breakdown of perceived causes / mistakes? I appreciate that may be controversial / hurtful for victims. |
It is always easy after an even to say: oh they were climbing a dangerous slope as a group or they ignored the risk 4, the important thing is to make those kind of observations before the avalanche.
If you look at all the reports on Pistehors: http://pistehors.com/navigate.do?template=article&namespace=-&category=Incident%20Report&style=2
you can read more details on each slide. Data Avalanche is also a good source of information: http://www.data-avalanche.org/
The biggest focus at the moment is on group spacing. If the slope can potentially avalanche (30 degree plus slopes) then people really should be going one-by-one on that slope. If the slope is too big for that to be practical timing wise (say ski touring) then maybe the route choice is wrong. If the slope does go avalanches can be much bigger and flow much further than people expect, your "island of safety" can get overwhelmed. This was probably the case at the Ceillac avalanche and was clearly demonstrated in the Ste Foy avalanche : http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2f5fak
Avalanches involving fatalities and serious injury are pretty rare compared to the number of skiers. As the stats make clear it is really the local skiers, going out day after day, not the timid one week per year tourist skier, who are the principal victims.
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Definitely it's always easy to assign cause after any event, but that can be very misleading. I'm more often likely to think:"I would probably have ridden that too", than "I would not have made that mistake".
Personally I feel my risk from tree wells to be greater than that from slides, but that's based on where I ride and in what circumstances. Neither risk is zero, but they're probably smaller than my risk driving there.
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FAQ
Yes indeed. Probably worth a thread on here, as there are a few climbers who will appreciate the details.
