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Boarder caught in avalanche near the piste dies
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Poster:
A snowHead
Poster:
A snowHead
Pistehors reports on the death of a snowboarder in the resort Pyrenean resort of Gourette.
Quote:
The boarder was just meters from the ski pistes. An eyewitness gave the alert and a large search and rescue operation got underway
Avalanche risk was "considerable" at the time.
http://www.pistehors.com/comments/458_0_1_0_C/
Reminds me, back on March 18th in Les Arcs - just at the end of the very cold period, with temperatures climbing rapidly, some fresh snow, followed by O°C no longer dropping below 2200m - there was a big avalanche set off by three people venturing off piste above the Ours black in the Arc 2000 domain. Users were already complaining that the snow on the piste itself was unstable, each turn starting a small slide. The Ours is south(ish)-facing, steep, and following the lengthy cold spell there was considerable concern about the safety of steeper slopes - Pistehors reported on spontaneous avalanches denuding some pistes at the time).
In this case three skiers, including one monoskier, were off-piste despite the high risk warnings some distance above the Ours piste, between the rateliers (avalanche barriers). Two of the three set off slides - one which was stopped by a barrier, the second (started by the monoskier) was not. The avalanche joined the piste and sped on downwards.
Quite a few people on the piste at the time. Alerted by the cries of those on the Bois de L'Ours lift immediately above, most managed to ski out of its path into the trees at the side, but three were swept away. In the event they were all lucky enough not to be completely buried, although there was huge confusion at the time, with some 60 pisteurs and instructors searching for possible victims up and down the piste. Fortunately in this instance there were no fatalities.
That night what was left of snow on the piste was removed by pisteurs setting off artificial slides.
Begs the question though as to why the piste was open in the first place, although it was clearly the fault of the idiots who skied off piste in one of the most dangerous locations in the domain itself, on a hot day, perfect for avalanches.
[See the thread at the top of the Piste that DGO made a sticky for more about the conditions at the time]
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