Poster: A snowHead
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A good article from Nick Trend in the travel.telegraph and a new approach to off piste training and avalanche rescue techinques being pioneered by the Deputy Mayor of Tignes.
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This year, his brainchild, SPOT ("Skiing the Powder of Tignes"), has opened in Val Claret, immediately above Tignes le Lac. It is the first attempt in Europe to set up a permanent education centre for skiers.
A dedicated lift runs up to the top of a black "piste", which will be marked and made safe from avalanches by the resort, but which won't be prepared by piste bashers, so will give skiers the chance to practise their techniques in a safe area. They can take other off-piste routes down from the top of the lift, but these won't be patrolled.
Just as importantly, SPOT allows skiers to practise using transceivers. Most off-piste casualties are caused by avalanches. According to Favre, however, more than 90 per cent of victims survive the avalanche itself and live for at least 15 minutes before suffocating. |
Perhaps his introduction of this welcome training area was prompted by the astonishing results of his survey.....
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Aimé, who was elected deputy mayor of Tignes two years ago, has already persuaded the resort to undertake a survey of the equipment carried by those heading off-piste in Tignes last season. In some areas this showed that as few as four per cent of skiers were carrying even the most basic safety equipment - a transceiver to help find them if they are buried in an avalanche. The highest result in the spot checks was just 25 per cent. |
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Hope it catches on and spreads to other resorts.
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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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kuwait_ian, we saw this last week, but unfortunately the conditions did not let us make use of it The week started off with too little snow off piste and then, when the snow arrived, it was a whiteout and the avalanche risk would have been off the scale (actually, the lift wasn't running either, so for those very reasons)
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