 Poster: A snowHead
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I know that ski resorts are selling a dream and may not rush to publish them but I very much suspect they keep stats on their local ski accidents including where they occur on the slopes and how serious the injuries were . Is this information published anywhere ? I’ve skied most of my adult life in La Plagne and can speculate about which areas are more dangerous than others but would find it more useful to have some more empirical information on all this . Is there such a source that anyone knows of ? I’m not thinking of the general stats over a country or area but something relating to particular resorts . Any ideas ?
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@boulevardier, Yes they do and no they don't publish. The Pisteurs, IME, keep a detailed record of all accidents they go to, after all it's an enterprise partly funded by insurance claims.
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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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There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Numbers tell the truth. Statistics shape the truth to tell the story the presenter wants. Graphs lie.
Sorry, pet rant after a glass of red.
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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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@chocksaway, It would be interesting to see the numbers of accidents for clients leaving a Folie Douce.
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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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Timc wrote: |
There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Numbers tell the truth. Statistics shape the truth to tell the story the presenter wants. Graphs lie.
Sorry, pet rant after a glass of red. |
Steady on! God knows what you will be like after a couple of glasses!
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 You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Bergmeister, After 2 glasses one of the most erudite and inspirational speakers you will ever have heard. After 3 it all goes to sh*te.
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Timc wrote: |
There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Numbers tell the truth. Statistics shape the truth to tell the story the presenter wants. Graphs lie.
Sorry, pet rant after a glass of red. |
Ironically the quote comes from a book called “How To Lie With Statistics” which was written to promote statistical literacy, a fact that many of the people who quote don’t know, because they’ve never read the book.
Also the author spent the latter part of his life trying to prove that smoking doesn’t cause cancer…
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@Kramer, The quote goes back long before that to sometime within the 1800s, being attributed to many including Mark Twain and Benjamin Disraeli
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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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Anyway. Statistics don’t lie if one knows how to interpret them. Which very few people do.
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I always took this to mean there were lies, bad lies and the demonstrably true
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 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@Timc, You are right there, but I can't help!
But a pisteur I sometimes have a swift half with advised me to have an accident in the Palet sector if I was going to have an accident. His words were "those guys get a lot more practice at difficult first aid because of the snowparks either side of Grattalu"
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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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I've just shared your comment above @chocksaway, with a friend who had an accident last month on... Grattalu. The pisteurs were indeed on the scene astonishingly quickly and he was looked after very well.
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@bobski62, Hope he's ok!
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 You know it makes sense.
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Some issues over in Sauze d’Oulx? Two skiers killed three months apart on a home blue run (physically coming OFF the piste, I believe?). After the second incident, in 2019, the resort management were immediately suspended and I think, also arrested. Prob someone on here knows more..
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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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chocksaway wrote: |
@bobski62, Hope he's ok! |
Sadly, not really. Landed on his ski and broke the hip ball-joint off the femur. He was enjoying skiing again two years after doing tib&fib in Sache. Surgeon in Bourg greeted him with, "not you again...?" and put his x-ray in the "too difficult" tray till the next day. Mended it with a pin into the top of the broken femur, another into the ball-joint and bolted the two together. Walking the next day, amazingly. He'll be out here again in a fortnight and I'm really hoping he can get in a bit of - gentle - skiing.
The accident was caused by another skier, speeding and out of control, clipping the tails of his skis.
In general it does seem to be worse than average for accidents this winter. Seeing some of the antics on the piste just makes me so angry. I'm spending all my time on black bumps runs and off piste, purely for self-preservation!
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 Poster: A snowHead
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At little Romme sur Cluses, we have had 8 accidents so far this season 6 of which needed a trip to hospital.
2019 there was 10, after a change of management an signage 2020 (The resort shuts at the end of half term so was unaffected by covid) it was down to 2. None of this season's accidents could be avoided by the way we do things, just bad luck for 7 and one idiot.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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On my Patrol training course we were warned that resorts like Les Menuires are like working a factory production line. You will do almost non stop rescues in very similar places!
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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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As for how patrol is funded, I can only speak for France. A ski area as part of their contract with the municipality are to provide the service. The municipality not the ski area bills you for this service. Insurance like carte neige and your holiday insurance pay the municipality. Some insurance systems are set up so you see less of the paperwork. None of the insurance companies directly support the ski patrol
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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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@Idris, I wonder why there? Average ability of skiers perhaps?
A chum is up the Grands Montets - I asked him what sort of injury frequency they had and he couldn't give me a good estimate - too variable - but the impression was nothing like as busy as that (with injuries) ((Which surprised me!))
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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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Megeve (Rochbrune side only) is about 3 rescues a day in quiet season and 7-8 in busy. This year's record so far is 13 in one day and I think 16 in a day in the last 5 years. They have 6 patrol on duty minimum on any given day, think 8 normal day.
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 You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@under a new name, GM skiers are generally of higher level than elsewhere in the ski world and are more likely to self (or friends) evac.
But when things go wrong they are normally bad - crevasse rescue or major injury
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I emailed SAP (la plagne lift company ) saying it would be helpful to know where the black spots are . I got a reply saying that they do keep records (of course !) but that they don’t publish them . They provided general advice that the most dangerous areas are where the runs cross and also at the end of runs . But nothing specific about particular runs was provided . I can see that the resorts might want not to publicise accidents but it would be helpful as a consumer to know which are the black spots . It also might encourage resorts to be more proactive about sorting out the more dangerous areas . There is a freedom of information law in France but apparently people rarely use it .
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@boulevardier,
The frequency of accidents also depends on time of year, day of week and time of day.
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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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In 3v in mid December, even though very quiet, we both experienced some very near misses of guys (always guys) with go pros bombing from behind obviously deliberately trying to spice up otherwise dull videos. As I commented at the time, Candide wannabes without the rocks or skills to go off piste. We have seen duff skiing before plenty of times, but have never really had people deliberately skiing close like that on completely empty pistes.
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