Ski Club 2.0 Home
Snow Reports
FAQFAQ

Mail for help.Help!!
Log in to snowHeads to make it MUCH better! Registration's totally free, of course, and makes snowHeads easier to use and to understand, gives better searching, filtering etc. as well as access to 'members only' forums, discounts and deals that U don't even know exist as a 'guest' user. (btw. 50,000+ snowHeads already know all this, making snowHeads the biggest, most active community of snow-heads in the UK, so you'll be in good company)..... When you register, you get our free weekly(-ish) snow report by email. It's rather good and not made up by tourist offices (or people that love the tourist office and want to marry it either)... We don't share your email address with anyone and we never send out any of those cheesy 'message from our partners' emails either. Anyway, snowHeads really is MUCH better when you're logged in - not least because you get to post your own messages complaining about things that annoy you like perhaps this banner which, incidentally, disappears when you log in :-)
Username:-
 Password:
Remember me:
👁 durr, I forgot...
Or: Register
(to be a proper snow-head, all official-like!)

Avalanche airbag effectiveness: growing evidence, but not always life-saving
 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead

The ABS (Avalanche Balloon System) has been around for over 20 years now, and several competing flotation devices have entered the market in recent years.

Only now (perhaps because of greater popularity and deployment) is some sort of 'portfolio' of accident data starting to emerge, and recent weeks have seen several incidents. In each case, skiers were equipped with this kit, but it's not always clear if they had time to trigger the inflation. Four days ago in Tignes (6 March), two fatalities occurred. Both skiers were reportedly equipped with airbags ...

Planetski:
http://www.planetski.eu/news/4736
Chamonet:
http://www.chamonet.com/events/news/former-member-of-the-pghm-dies-in-avalanche-in-tignes.html

On 3 March, an airbag reportedly saved one skier near Haines, Alaska ...

KTOO.org:
http://www.ktoo.org/2013/03/05/one-dead-two-injured-in-haines-skiing-incident/

On 22 February, an avalanche near Revelstoke ...

CBC News:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/02/25/bc-avalanche-death-id.html

On 16 February, an avalanche at Champex ...

GenevaLunch.com:
http://genevalunch.com/2013/02/16/st-luc-avalanche-critically-injures-1-vd-skier-killed-in-champex-update/

On 8 February, an avalanche at Brevent, Chamonix ...

Chamonet:
http://www.chamonet.com/events/news/skier-dies-in-brevent-avalanche-chamonix.html

On a related issue, Austrian Independent recently carried this story about group wireless activation of airbags ...

http://austrianindependent.com/news/Sports/2013-02-28/13347/Wireless_activation_of_avalanche_airbags_fails_to_work
ski holidays
ski holidays
 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person

There is a very good article written by Bruce Tremper who is extremely knowledgeable and objective about all things avalanche- you can get link via off-piste forum of SHs
ski holidays
ski holidays
 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?

patricksh, thanks for pointing that out [krakatoa is the name I use for some non-comedic stuff, BTW]. This is the link ...

http://utahavalanchecenter.org/blog-avalanche-airbag-effectiveness-something-closer-truth

... and I see that there are two threads in 'Off Piste' which trigger from it:

http://www.snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=98718
http://www.snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=98695

The news stories above suggest that big claims for the effectiveness of airbags come from hot air bags (maybe PR people who should know better). James Cove says (in the Planetski piece linked above) ...

Quote:
... there are genuine concerns that people wearing them take greater risks than they might otherwise have done in the past.

Quote:
... some mountain guides we have spoken to at PlanetSKI admit that there is so much pressure on them to find fresh snow for their clients that occasionally they take greater risks.


Indeed. As with helmets ... is additional risk-taking (perhaps psychologically induced by wearing extra safety kit) overshadowing risk-avoidance?
snow conditions
snow conditions



Terms and conditions  Privacy Policy