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Avalanche in Nepal: 18 climbers killed

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Thread re-headed 25.10
---------------------------------------------------------------
Turkish Weekly (via Anadolu News Agency in Kathmandu) is reporting an avalanche in Nepal on 19 October. It appears to have struck a 21-member climbing team at their base camp of the 6,981m (22,903 ft) Kang Guru peak, following heavy snowfall.

Three Nepali climbers are reported rescued today, but seven French and eleven Nepali climbers are missing.

Here is the Turkish Weekly report.

Nouvel Observateur has this Associated Press report in French


Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Tue 25-10-05 17:32; edited 1 time in total
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This report from Reuters AlertNet has more information.

The seven French climbers were being led by "Daniel R. Stolzenberg, a university professor from Chomoix, France", according to the report. This seems to be a typo for Chamonix, as this professor appears (from a quick search) to have an academic paper published from the Congrès Internationaux D’Alpinisme de Chamonix.
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David Goldsmith wrote:
This report from Reuters AlertNet has more information.

The seven French climbers were being led by "Daniel R. Stolzenberg, a university professor from Chomoix, France", according to the report. This seems to be a typo for Chamonix, as this professor appears (from a quick search) to have an academic paper published from the Congrès Internationaux D’Alpinisme de Chamonix.


Daniel Stolzenberg is a climbing and skiing instructor at the ENSA, the French Skiing and Climbing School. The ENSA teaches and certifies guides and ski instructors in France. Mr Stolzenberg was a very experienced climber.

"When the mountain is angry things are always difficult" - D Stolzenberg
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I spent two months this year in Nepal, it is not somewhere one would like to have an accident, the infrastructure and healthcare are awful. Hopefully the missing party will be found soon.
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French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy has warned that there is slim hope of finding further survivors of the avalanche. The picture emerging is that the camp's tents were directly hit, with the 18 climbers inside. Four (rather than three as originally reported) Nepali porters escaped with their lives because they were lucky enough to be outside the tents.

This report from The Himalayan Times.
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Rescue efforts are now reported to have been abandoned, with all the 18 missing climbers feared dead.
This report from Nepal News

The Telegraph's reporter in Kathmandu describes the disaster as "the single greatest loss of life in recent climbing history."
Their report here.

Reports in French: Le Figaro, 24 heures, Libération
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This report from MountEverest.net adds some details and names the French victims as Bruno Chardin, 54, Bernard Constantin, 65, Pierre G. Fleuatti, 35, Jean Francois Jube, 63, Jean Paul Minette, 51, Marie Odile Stolzenberg, 62, and Daniel Stolzenberg, 60.
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David Goldsmith wrote:
This report from MountEverest.net adds some details and names the French victims as Bruno Chardin, 54


I was wondering what the ski angle of this story was and why Snowheads were interested but finally we have a connection. Bruno Chardin is the director of the Les Saises ski lifts.
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[Just to clarify, davidof: there's no 'editorial policy', as such. I'm just trawling the web for snow/ski/board stories of all sorts, including the excellent news and features published by your goodself on www.pistehors.com , but it's in no way an 'official role'.

Anything done is purely freelance and unofficial and just part of the randomness and pot-pourri of the site. I guess just about everything posted on the site fits that description.

As for snowHeads being a 'ski site' - well, over 90 per cent of this community must ski, though the slogan above (which I think admin conceived) - "Love Snow, Live Snow, Eat Snow" - might be said to include just about everything to do with snow (including the fear and consequences of avalanches).]
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France and Nepal are now in a complex recovery operation to locate the bodies of 16 victims still to be found. Six experts, two sniffer dogs and special equipment have arrived from France. Four of the specialists were flown to the scene on Wednesday to take stock of the situation.

The French Ambassador in Nepal has expressed his gratitude to those involved in the recovery, for "braving danger". There is concern about further possible avalanches.

"Currently it is quite dangerous for rescue team to work there. Once the danger of further avalanches recedes, the search operation will resume," said Serge Koenig, mountain advisor at the French Ministry for Youth and Sports, who is involved in the search operation.

Reports from The Rising Nepal and The Kathmandu Post.
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David Goldsmith wrote:

As for snowHeads being a 'ski site' - well, over 90 per cent of this community must ski, though the slogan above (which I think admin conceived) - "Love Snow, Live Snow, Eat Snow" - might be said to include just about everything to do with snow (including the fear and consequences of avalanches).]


Hi David

Not criticising, it just didn't seem too relevant that was all. It is a sad tail, especially for friends and family. It was to be M. Stolzenberg's last climb in the Himalayas too. Their destination: Kang Guru, is not reputed to be a difficult climb with only some 30 meters needing fixed ropes and because of that has become very fashionable in the last few years with European and American groups.

A former head of the ENSA told me recently that 50% of the students that went through the school during his time (5 years I think) are now dead. This accident to a senior instructor will probably have hit him quite hard too.
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davidof, that's strikes me as a pretty astonishing statistic. Is there debate about this? I wonder whether that percentage is abnormal vis-a-vis other comparable schools. Does it reflect a more adventurous/risk-taking philosophy of its graduates?
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The Nepali porters who survived the avalanche have now spoken about the disaster. This report from Billi Bierling and Karin Kamp in Kathmandu is published in today's Guardian.
Quote:
Sarki Tamang, 18, one of the Nepalese porters who dug his way out of the snow, said: "The team came back down in the afternoon, and as they were tired from the climb and it was snowing most of them were in their tents when the avalanche struck." He and the three other survivors were in the kitchen tent preparing tea for the exhausted climbers when they heard a roaring sound. "All of a sudden we heard a loud noise and within seconds we were blown to the side of an avalanche," he said.
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You know it makes sense.
David Goldsmith wrote:
davidof, that's strikes me as a pretty astonishing statistic. Is there debate about this? I wonder whether that percentage is abnormal vis-a-vis other comparable schools. Does it reflect a more adventurous/risk-taking philosophy of its graduates?


There is a lot of debate about guide deaths, the Observer reported on the debate earlier in the year which you may be able to find online... I find the 50% statistic very high too, that is what Marcel Peres told me though although he was one of the youngest heads of the ENSA and has just retired so we must be talking about a 25 year period.

Most of the accidents seem to be in the guide's or instructor's free time. Last month a guide neighbour of mine died on Mt Blanc climbing with a friend.
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Very sad. A wuss like me finds it hard to understand why folks put themselves into such danger.

davidof, Can I ask if you try and expand the "thrill" window. As you become comfortable with a standard of ascent or descent do you then lookfor something with greater difficulty?. Is the thrill related to the danger?.
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Frosty - from a climbing perspective - it's not so much the danger (and I am a bit of a wuss as well) but as your expertise increases then you tend to increase the level of route difficulty just to provide a bit of a challenge to yourself and generally keep your interest up. On the rock this often can mean greater safety - as the steeper the face the less chance of hitting something when falling off. In winter mountaineering, ice climbing and steep ski descents difficult terrain brings a huge increase in objective dangers, also the consequences of a minor error tend to escalate. Damned exciting though Puzzled
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After a suspension of operations last Friday, a full-scale search for the victims' bodies is set to resume today for six days, involving a 30-strong team and dogs.

The French avalanche experts who have surveyed the scene believe that the bodies may have been swept into a deep gorge, where it appears the snow may lie up to 10m deep. This report from The Himalayan Times.
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Scarpa wrote:
In winter mountaineering, ice climbing and steep ski descents difficult terrain brings a huge increase in objective dangers, also the consequences of a minor error tend to escalate. Damned exciting though :~/


I think Scarpa has summed it up pretty well. I believe in climbing you can master a lot of the risk as long as you stick to accepted procedure and are not climbing way beyond your limits... maybe Scarpa can comment ?

With steep ski descents you are always to some extent in the lap of the gods. In May the boyfriend of a ski partner of mine got caught by a tiny slab avalanche on a steep slope, he lost his footing and fell a short distance over a cliff injuring his back currently leaving him paralysed. Alain Geleon and Jerome Ruby had similar accidents in Mont Blanc - small slabs taking them over cliffs. These were two guides at the top of their game. When you are skiing slopes above 45 degrees there is a lot that can happen that is not within your control.

Just to clarify about the ENSA director - he was director for a 5 year period not a 25 year period as my post may have implied.

Association Nat&Co: http://natnco.free.fr/ (link in French)
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[quote="davidof I believe in climbing you can master a lot of the risk as long as you stick to accepted procedure and are not climbing way beyond your limits... maybe Scarpa can comment ?

Yup - pretty accurate. A lot (if not most) accidents seem to occur during descents when the climbers are tired, conditions have deteriorated and darkness may be falling. Abseilling off a route is a particular danger period, a thousand foot climb may require 7 or 8 abseils, if you are on ground where protection is scarce then that becomes fraught with problems. I once spent a night pinned down in a nasty storm on top of the Caingorm plateau after my companion lost the bearing he was following, it was an uncomfortable next 24 hours but I'd learnt a lot of survival techniques. However, 6 other people died that night, one must have been only a few hundred metres from us. Amazing really how just making one little mistake can lead to disaster.
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I remember reading somewhere that most years more people die climbing in the Cairngorms, and elsewhere, than in any other sport/leisure activity in the UK. Most of us need millions of pounds worth of men and machinery just to spend a few days in the mountains in winter. I have an apartment at Les Saisies and was very sad to learn about the death of Bruno Chardin, the director of the lift company. He and his team have been working very hard to get the chairlifts built this autumn, to create the new Espace Diamant and I believe he was highly regarded locally. He was a real "mountain man". We should all be grateful that so many experts of that calibre are working to make it possible for the rest of us to have a comfortable and safe ski holiday!
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David, you are a lean mean posting machine my man Very Happy How do you find all this stuff?
That really sucks that 18 passed doing something many of us enjoy so much. Kind of hurts when when it happens like that. I guess all one can do is ask that the lord be with them and their families.
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pam w - most of the people who die in the UK mountains are actually winter walkers, it's just that winter hill walkers are usually described as climbers in the media. Climbing is fairly safe - I'm sure that more people die from horse riding accidents each year - will have to look at the stats if I can find them.
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Gives a few details of Scottish incidents involving injury leading to mountain rescue callout.

http://www.mountaineering-scotland.org.uk/documents/mountain%20accidents.pdf
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<But it isn't really the danger factor that marks out extreme sports. According to Nicholas Heyworth from Sports England, many are less dangerous than traditional sports: 'Statistically, the most dangerous sport is horse riding.'>
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http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CAD26.htm

pretty ok article about risk in extreme sports
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Scarpa, interesting that the Scottish study says that most accidents happen when walking, and on uphill or flat terrain. My wife's uncle, who was a very experienced mountaineer, was killed walking along a ridge on a mountain which he had spent most of his childhood climbing around on. The ridge is completely flat and not in any way difficult, but has a 100 meter drop if you get it wrong. We never found out exactly what happened, but assume that he was on the lookout for some 'Steinbock' (mountain goats?) because he had told us that he was going up to the Zwölfer to see how the Steinbock are doing. I guess he just wasn't paying attention. And I guess that just confirms the findings of the scottish study.
Talking to mountain rescue people in Kleinwalsertal it seems that a significant number of accidents are caused by people having inappropriate equipment, especially inappropriate footwear! I have personally sometimes gaped in amazement at some of the people you encounter in the mountains. I even encountered one woman wearing shoes with raised heels ( not exactly high heels ) on a path that was classed as a 'Klettersteige', i.e a path that has some dangerous sections where some climbing may be required!
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Mike - there was a great story in the Snowdonia national park, North Wales, where a visiting Sherpa who had summeted Everest was winter walking with some Welsh climbers. A park ranger told him off for being up in the snow wearing trainers, so the Sherpa guy just took them off and carried on barefoot leaving the ranger stunned snowHead


Last edited by And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports. on Tue 1-11-05 22:35; edited 3 times in total
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"FREE RUNNING" How freaking gay is that!!!! That has to be the stupidest thing I ever heard of!!! LOL you idiots!
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After several days searching the avalanche site, the recovery team are still faced with the formidable task of finding 16 remaining bodies. The operation has again been suspended due to bad weather, with the imminent onset of winter threatening a pull-out until the spring.

This report from The Himalayan Times.
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Mike Lawrie wrote:
I even encountered one woman wearing shoes with raised heels ( not exactly high heels ) on a path that was classed as a 'Klettersteige', i.e a path that has some dangerous sections where some climbing may be required!


We met a young lady who was completely naked apart from her rucksack and walking boots on the walk down from a ski tour this spring... my mate took a furtive photo but I'm not sure I can post it here. I hope she had sun cream on that's all I can say. She was German.
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davidof, At least she was wearing walking boots! Germans do these things. Biking here in the vicinity of Munich along the Isar river I have occasionally come across people negotiating technically difficult bike trails with not a stitch of clothing on. What can you say? Glad I'm not your saddle Shocked
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The recovery operation at the avalanche site has now been suspended until the snows thaw next spring - approximately 7 months.

This report from China View.
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