 Poster: A snowHead
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A British snowboarder ducked the ropes under a Level 4 avalanche warning in Les Deux Alpes on Wednesday, was caught in and escaped an avalanche but nevertheless got himself trapped on a ledge further down the valley. Having been lost for 8hrs, he finaly managed to telephone a friend back at his hotel who notified the French rescue services. Then he attracted the helicopter towards him by the light of his mobile phone...
The Daily Mail's version...
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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That is one lucky fella.
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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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Frosty the Snowman, But adds to the debate of carrying a mobile phone AND avi kit?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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boredsurfin, I have found mobile phone reception in the mountains of the Tarentaise to be much better than the lower molehills of North Yorkshire. 
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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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Frosty the Snowman, It's the clean un-polluted air in the mountains!! 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Begs the question though: why didn't he have the rescue service number himself?
Isn't that the first thing you do when you arrive in resort: Put the local rescue service into your phone?
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admin, You and I, but many don't 
Start a poll and I bet we are very much in the minority .....
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Sorry to say I have never done this
#1 must be the Pizza delivery shop surely.
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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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One of my guests. Here's what actually happened - he went off piste at the top of the glacier heading for the Signal chair, but missed and went down the next gully along (we think). He spent eight hours scrambling down the side of the mountain and ended up nearly at the road at the top end of Lac de Chambon , God knows how. At that point he called his mate at the hotel, and I called the Gendarmerie. Three of our staff went out along the road to see if they could see him, and spotted his light. I told the gendarmes, who scrambled the mountain rescue helicopter from Alpe d'Huez, which picked him off the cliff where he was perched and gave him back to our staff waiting on the road. We fed him tea and omelettes, and after a night's rest he appeared to have no more damage than a bit of a sore bum.
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"Hello, yeah it's Frosty the Snowman 'ere. Look, I'm on this ledge, I think I might have broken something and I'm not sure how long I can hold out so please hurry. I need a large peperoni..."
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Lizzard wrote: |
| ....................he appeared to have no more damage than a bit of a sore bum. |
He'll have to pay them cash next time!
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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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| Lizzard wrote: |
| One of my guests. |
OOH, fascinating , but you told the DM before us !!
| Quote: |
| We fed him tea and omelettes,....... he appeared to have no more damage than a bit of a sore bum. |
I'd get a new chef if I were you 
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You know it makes sense.
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Lizzard, Many thanks for sharing that. Just shows how things can go wrong.
admin, 
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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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Agenterre, I always look for it on the piste map.
For example on the Paradiski map, it has 3 numbers:
La Plagne: 04 79 09 67 60
Les Arcs: 04 79 07 85 66
Peisey Vallendry: 04 79 07 92 59
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Poster: A snowHead
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Agenterre, the Mail picked it up from the Dauphine, which also got it wrong.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Lizzard, It was in the Mail on Sunday ysterday, but I couldn't find a link.
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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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Agenterre, 112 is the international emergency number.
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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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Elizabeth B, and apologies to everyone else who may read that (I'll edit) ... guess who doesn't leave France very often
Lizzard, IME that is what journos do, put any story together in such a way that it isn't 'wrong' just sexed-up a bit .. mind you , I think I found the correct version a better 'story' ...
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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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Lizzard, as has been pointed out above: your version and the Daily Mail version hardly match at all.
Did Mr Murphy actually talk to the press? Did he get carried away when he did? Did the Daily Mail make it all up?
According to Lizzard this is not an Avalanche incident at all.
Makes me wonder how much of the other so-called avalanche data is also a load of cobblers.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Jonpim, aparently he was caught in a small avalanche but earlier on in his escapade and this wasn't actually responsible for his later predicament.
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Jonpim, he spoke to the French press on Friday morning, and their story was less than accurate (probably a result of the language barrier and the version given by the Gendarmerie). The Mail will have picked the story up from M6 and the Dauphine.
Although he did get caught in a small avalanche and managed to ride out of it, the thing couldn't be described an 'avalanche incident' - the avalanche was a result of his actions, not the cause of the situation. It was also a pretty minor part of what turned out to be an eventful day!
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since when have the Daily Mail been known for the accuracy of their stories anyway? Interesting how wrong it was.
I never put in teh emergency number either. Don't really go off-piste but should start checking for teh emergency numbers on piste maps etc.
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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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I always have piste rescue's number in the phone, and I make sure all my staff do as well. Even if you aren't off-piste it means that you can get help for yourself or anyone else without having to wait or trust that someone spots the problem quickly.
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>> he went off piste at the top of the glacier
Was he really off piste in glacial terrain on his own ?????
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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He was interviewed on TV over the weekend also. Did mention an avalanche (but not the size or significance).
Did the Mail blame it all on Inheritance Tax or Asylum Seekers?
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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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| Colin B wrote: |
| Did the Mail blame it all on Inheritance Tax or Asylum Seekers? |
No, it was the fault of the French snow.
If it had been British snow, it would never have avalanched.
They've started a campaign to BAN FRENCH SNOW NOW.
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Did the Independent get in a global warming angle?
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You know it makes sense.
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kitenski, yes. He and his friends had been doing it all the previous day as well. One of the others came a cropper on that occasion too, and spent the whole afternoon digging himself out of a snowdrift.
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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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Snow boarders eh ! ? They'll do anything for a bit o'Powder
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Poster: A snowHead
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| admin wrote: |
| "Hello, yeah it's Frosty the Snowman 'ere. Look, I'm on this ledge, I think I might have broken something and I'm not sure how long I can hold out so please hurry. I need a large peperoni..." |
That gave me a belly laugh. Probably the first SnowHeads post that did that for me.
Thanks.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Agenterre, 112 is the international rescue number.
admin wrote:.... but should read
"Hello,( is that really you virgill ),yeah it's Frosty the Snowman 'ere. Look, I'm on this ledge, I think I might have broken something and I'm not sure how long I can hold out so please hurry. I need a large peperoni..." 
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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 would never have gone for the pepperoni
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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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| crosbie wrote: |
| admin wrote: |
| "Hello, yeah it's Frosty the Snowman 'ere. Look, I'm on this ledge, I think I might have broken something and I'm not sure how long I can hold out so please hurry. I need a large peperoni..." |
That gave me a belly laugh. Probably the first SnowHeads post that did that for me.
Thanks. |
Did he break his fast then?
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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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Personally I would have gone with the angle of another dramatic rescue by the French Securite Civile with the honours once again going to the le Versoud team based near Grenoble.
This is the same team who saved Rene Desmaison from the Grandes Jorasses in 1967 after 342 hours stuck on its face in winter after the rescue was declared impossible by the guides and pilots in Chamonix. In that case Alain Frebault managed to fly his Alouette III from le Versoud to a mountain range he barely knew and guided by a member of the CRS at the bottom of the face landed his helicopter close to Desmaison permitting a team of guides to climb down and pluck him to safety.
It was also a Securite Civile pilot, the ace Remi Romet who carried out the first whinched rescue on a vertical rockface when he plucked English Climber Anthony Lyle from the north face of the Drus.
Anyway the French press seems to have gone for this side of the story
| Quote: |
It was an exceptional rescue that was undertaken by the men of the Isère High Mountain Gendarmerie (PGHM) this week.
30 year old Thomas Murphy, an English snowboarder, owes them his life. It all began on Wednesday at the end of the afternoon when the boarder, on holiday with friends in the ski resort of les Deux Alpes got disoriented in the ski domain.
“I got lost in bad weather while skiing down the glacier of les Deux Alpes. The visibility was zero and I was first of all hit by an avalanche”. Murphy told reporters adding that he was lucky not to have been buried. “Seeing as I couldn’t climb back up I jumped the first cliffs which were about 30 meters”. He was stuck for two hours before deciding to jump a second cliff of 20 meters where he ended up trapped on a ledge of about 30cm, below him 300 meters of thin air. Shocked and on the verge of hypothermia Murphy remained semi conscious for around three hours in this precarious spot, the well known Muretouse ice fall at 1500 meters altitude above the lac du Chambon.
He finally recovered his composure and taking out his mobile realized that he had managed to get a faint signal which he didn’t have higher up. Not knowing the French rescue services number (112) he called one of his friends. They had already notified the Gendarmerie at les Deux Alpes but now they had an idea where to find their missing friend..
It was now around midnight. The PGHM realized they had to act quickly fearing that Thomas wouldn’t last the night. They sent a car up the RN91 and were attracted by the light of Murphy’s mobile phone screen. The PGHM contacted the Securite Civile based at l’Alpe d’Huez. It was a clear night and weather conditions were good. However the helicopter based at l’Alpe d’Huez is an aging Alouette III; unlike the modern EC145 it has neither night vision nor an infra-red camera but it is equipped with a powerful searchlight. It was still Thomas’ best hope for a speedy rescue The pilot and mechanic decided to make the attempt, flying by instruments they were guided to the scene by the flashing blue lights of the Gendarme’s car.
Thomas continued to flash the light of his mobile phone into the clear night air. Remi Fiorillo the pilot said that he could see his phone from over a kilometer. Thomas recalls “When I saw them come, I was afraid that they would make me fall from my small platform with turbulence from the copter”. Without the normal visual clues of daytime Fiorillo positioned his aircraft above the Englishman, rotor blades just meters from the cliff face. A delicate operation. Flight engineer, Emmanuel Larat winched Gendarme and high mountain guide Herve Labarde down to the stricken man. He managed to get a harness onto the young snowboarder but it was not possible to winch them into the helicopter. Instead they were suspended from the cable and flown down to the police car.
Thomas Murphy is almost unscathed but won’t forget this alpine adventure soon. “I had started to call my girl friend, my brother, my sister, my mother and my father to say to them that I loved them, because I really thought I was going to die. The people who saved my life are heros, supermen. angels”
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- Le Bigalo, 3rd March 2007
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Quote: |
They've started a campaign to BAN FRENCH SNOW NOW
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Campaign not doing badly, then
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Now that is some dramatic story!
I like that version: the Hollywood version.
Thank you davidof: I suggest Robert Downey Jr. for the Murphy role.
But, as you say: the real hero seems the helicopter pilot.
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Gives me the eeby jeebies thinking about a 60 foot cliff jump to a 1 foot ledge above 900 feet of
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|__________________
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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 Lizzard can negociate the film rights?
Robert Downey... great actor.
For the French characters... okay we'll have to move the action to Mammoth or somewhere like that. Lets see, how about Kiefer as the pilot (yes I know it cries out Tom Cruise but he's rather past it, isn't he?). Head of police at Les 2 Alpes... erm I mean Mammoth - Sly Stalone after his Rocky comeback his star is rising. What about the others? Nic Cage is definitely out after his awful Wicker Man remake and Ghostrider.
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