 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Amazing video in a shocking way, was anyone actually caught?
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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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Yep, I Russian who has still not been found.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I hate seeing avvy footage of places I've (recently) been. 
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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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Mr Technique, I know what you mean, in 1991 I was doing a season in Mottaret, I had skied a bowl in the morning, went to do the lunch service and punters were coming in talking of the very same bowl, I think two were killed, this was a party of six with a guide. 40 mins earlier and it could have been me. It left me feeling very cold.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Thoughts are with the family, awful
Last edited by You'll need to Register first of course. on Wed 23-03-11 20:36; edited 1 time in total
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man thats sad, a very good friend of mine and his son had skied that same route only a few days before...
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waynos, If you look at the opening stills of that vid, the people in it are circled in red. 
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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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Chilling footage...so much respect going out to the mountain rescue, no messing around they go straight into the danger zone, to save lives, with little regard to there own safety.
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Looked like the guy in the red circle up top set it off?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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weeeman, I thought that, watching them head off with a massive shovel in each hand. Big respect.
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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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Could someone explain why the rescue team were waiting there and why the guy was filming. it was if they were expecting the avalanche to trigger or was it just coincidence
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I'm guessing they are lifties
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You know it makes sense.
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BergenBergen, the rescue team/lifties (at 3:38 ) are not the same as the group taking the film (seen at 1:40) - they turn up after the heli has made its drop. I assume those filming were just normal skiers filming random other skiers in the area they were skiing and just happened to be there at the time the avalanche went off. Note that the video must have been started after the avalanche got going - after the guy taking the stills saw it start.
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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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Sends chills down my spine every time I see it.
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Poster: A snowHead
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That looks terrible, yep thoughts go out to the family there. Skied a few times there myself.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I was lunching on the terrace of the Bel-Air restaurant above Courchevel at the time this happened. We saw a lot of helicopter activity overhead and wondered what was going on.
There was about 200mm new snow on the Wednesday/Thursday and, of course, this fell on a base that hadn't had any new snow for many weeks.
Although, I don't ski off-piste myself, I'm pretty sure that I saw that the avalanche risk warning signs had been raised from 1 (on the monday) to 4 by the Friday morning. It seems like it was an accident waiting to happen.
I believe the footage above was taken from the Merinet.com site and it appears that the footage has been edited together with stills and film taken at different times (maybe even by different poeple).
It seemed to me that when the helicopter first landed it was using it's rotor down-draught to try and move some snow away to possibly try to uncover the missing skier.
I agree with GrahamN that the film shows the rescue team/lifties arriving some time after the avalanche occured and not that they were waiting around for it to happen! I also agree that the guy who filmed the avalanche was probably just in the right place at the right time to catch it.
I have the utmost respect for the rescue team/lifties bravery in skiing straight into the area where an avalanche has just occured, and my sympathy goes to the family of the lost skier who even yet hasn't been found.
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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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Thought i should raise my head as the guy behind the camera whilst witnessing the avalanche.... i've never felt so helpless in all my life but at the same time felt it important to record the horrific scene!
It was the family and friends of the missing skiier who asked me to upload the video, in case it may help the rescuers in their search and also for thier memories, which is so sad!
I too have to show my respect for the rescue services, it was impressive how quick they reacted after the initial alarm was raised, the first rescuer on scene within 5 minutes, kitted out with a RECCO transcever, followed by constant helicopter drops with dogs and more resue parties. Every ski instructor and ski patrol in the 3 Vallees was drafted in to help with the search.
Latest i heard on Thursday (6 days since the accident) they had been using heavy machinery to excavate, they were down to a depth of 5 metres by the end of that day with still nothing found!
Tragic.
But hopefully lessons can be learned from this. For instance when skiing off piste move ahead one at a time and don't drop in above somone . I will probably get abuse for saying it but snowboarders do seem to drop down in solo formation whereas skiers tend to drop down in groups and this is what i wttnessed that day!
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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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sunsnowguy, Welcome to Snowheads, thanks for coming forward and I think your video has done a great service to avalanche awareness. Top marks to the rescue services, without which we wouldn't be enjoying the mainly safe skiing.
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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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sunsnowguy, Please stick around now you've found the site.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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crazy video, seen skiiers there before and i cant imagine what the friends and family are thinking of. I hope this is a warning to others to be careful and stay safe!
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Was up at Col de la Chambre on Tuesday and saw the aftermath of the search with a friend who'd skied that very face a week previous. Rumours are circulating that the victim was found at the beginning of this week under 8m of snow! Terrible tragedy.
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I could only see one skier circled. If they were really with a guide at a period of high avalanche danger he wouldn't have been letting them ski together. Were any of the others in the avalanche?
Many, many commiserations to the dead man's family. But how come his transceiver failed to work? Was it just mechanical damage (unusual) or did the guide fail to check it was switched on or didn't he have one? I can't imagine these days that a guide would ski with someone with no avalanche transceiver.
However if he was under more than a couple of metres of snow (let alone 8 as I see someone has now said) it is unlikely he would have survived and perhaps the signal would have been blocked by so much snow? Certainly it would have been difficult to plot it's position except rather vaguely, but that would have improved as they dug down.
I can't imagine the helicopter was trying to "blow" snow off. Avalanche snow is in heavy chunks pressed together by the force of the avalanche (as I'm sure most people will have experienced when skiing over old avalanches - it is horribly unyielding to ski (and hard to dig). [Edit: Unless this was just the settling out of the powder cloud left at the end (a very small part of it).]
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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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snowballThe higher skier can be seen in the top left hand corner of the screen at the beginning of the video. He is circled in red. Ensure that no drop-down boxes obstruct the top left hand part of the image, if you want to see the location of the 'higher skier.
I have seen no reports confirming that the lost skier had a guide or was wearing a transceiver. There has been no report on merinet.com that he has been found, although they had issued two news reports about the incident.
I know very little about rescuing skiers and probably even less about helicopters, but I was interested by how long the helicopter hovered over the site before landing and how much snow the downdraft kicked up. Obviously the hovering might just be the pilot looking for a safe place to land and the snow just a few particles of powder being blown away but it seemed to me that the pilot was trying to clear some of the snow about (which I thought was a sensible little trick, if true).
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but it seemed to me that the pilot was trying to clear some of the snow about (which I thought was a sensible little trick, if true).
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Seems unlikely, during the slide the friction causes the snow to start melting slightly, afterwards it sets as rock hard ice.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I would imagine the helicopter would be wary of landing on the uneven heaps of avalanched snow (probably not horizontal either) - he could easily tip and hit his rotors on the snow. More likely he just touched the ground and hovered while people got off and unloaded (as a helicopter I was in once did on the Monte Rosa, just resting the front ends of the skids on the snow since there was no flat ground)
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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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This scared the beejayus out of me - truly chilling documentation of death from above - looks like the guy highlighted at the start wasn't even aware of it and even if he'd make a sound tactical decision to point it laterally toward an island of safety the whole thing was so huge it would have been v difficult to outrun.
Anyone who was there what were the instability factors - 20cm overnight isn't huge. windloading, warming of snowpack in sun?
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fatbob, i skied near that slope a week or two before that avvy. there was a nasty mix of crusts and faceted old snow.
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You know it makes sense.
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Arno, Accordingly with that knowledge would you have skied it immediately after a fresh snowfall? Not trying to armchair quarterback just interested in how relevant it is to be informed on seasonal history of the snowpack if you're not going to dig pits.
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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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Arno, by "faceted old snow" do you mean big hoar frost crystals? Lethal.
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Poster: A snowHead
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fatbob, put it this way - my last skiing was at the beginning of march. i am not feeling all that keen to book any more this season except maybe some very late season ski mountaineering (ie after several freeze thaw cycles.) the crap snowpack is a significant influence on this (although not the only one). maybe i am generalising a bit and being over-cautious but i can live with that 
snowball, that sort of thing. not big crystals like surface hoar though. small granular crystals which don't bind to anything
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Arno, I am hoping the +15 temps forecast this weekend will stabilise stuff around Stuben!! Looking back that weekend in Zinal was actually pretty good for fresh tracks all things considering!!!
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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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snowball, it was pretty much the same stuff we were skiing in La Grave - although a bit more ski-pisted on the surface.
I'm also not particularly sad that trip with Arno, was my last trip for the season either - it's good to go out on a high  .
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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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Arno, GrahamN, You just need to wangle a business trip to California - looks like they'll be corn harvesting into June following recent Snowmaggedon.
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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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fatbob, i've just had a business trip to california moved back from April to May so it's not out of the question
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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A couple of things after scanning through some of the comments since i last posted.
First of all as someone mentioned a rumour that the person was found, this could not be true as a family member of the missing person contacted me yesterday (Wednesday 30th) for some more info as to what position we had last seen the skier. So it cannot be true.
I doubt if a position of last sighting would even help in the search for the body... it was like a river of snow moving down that slope... the body could be anywhere.
Someone had mentioned possibly 20cm of fresh snow previous to the avalanche... in reality it was at least a meter, although yes it had fallen on what would have been a hard crust layer and yes temps went up big time by mid-day so all of these factors add up when you see what happened.
Another person asked... "would you have skied after that much snow fell... well personaly and i think i'd be speaking for alot of people... those conditions are what some of us live for but the difference is wether or not you are prepared for an avalanche. I'll admit that we skied all morning off piste, with some admitadly risky situations... but after wtnessing this avalanche i will be getting geared up for my next trip. I don't believe the missing skier had any avalanche tranceivers on him.
I do think the skier knew what was coming from above as he went from carving to straight lining it and possibly could have out run it but he ran out of slope and with a basin shaped hollow at the bottom.... it was never going to be good.
I have always heard that you should cut left... left being to do with the way the earth spins? i dunno but it was going through my head at the time and i do believe this could have helped him out. Thre was a lower skier, well ahead of the other guy and he cut to the left and did make it clear.
Finally, i don't think that the helicopter was clearing the snow, he only did this on the first visit... probably making an assessment. After that he was constantly flying in, first with the dogs then more search team members, every ski instructor in the 3 Vallees was brought in to help with the search!
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Rumour mill is in overdrive - you're right about him having not been found and it's now moved on to talk of them leaving the search until the major melt at the end of the season.
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I've been thinking that might end up happening, thats been 2 weeks today since it happened. That would be pretty heavy for the poor family!!
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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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The talk in Meribel is that the unlucky guy was wearing headphones and was oblivious to the incoming disaster!
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thebrownslug, how could they possibly know that?! I don't think that skiing with headphones is a particularly wonderful idea, but alarm-mongering speculation of that sort is OTT.
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