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British skier found under avalanche at Chamonix
Posted: 26 December 2009 07:26 PM  
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A 44 year old British skier, missing since Christmas day has been found dead under an avalanche at the edge of ski pistes in the Tour sector. This is the second death in at le Tour in the last week. The victim, original from Liverpool but living in London had been reported missing by a friend.

see also: http://pistehors.com/news/forums/viewthread/412/

 
 
Posted: 27 December 2009 07:56 PM   [ # 1 ]  
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I’m becoming more wary of Le Tour, the safety record there must be appalling. Do you think that it is because it is perceived as an ‘easy’ ski area which also has very readily accessible off piste terrain which coerces the inexperienced into attempting them in unsuitable conditions and unprepared?

I guess it is also a very avalanche prone area and quite wind exposed. The day that I was there during the last avalanche, the risk was stated as 2/5 and within a few hours of heavy wind damage a few skiers set it off in Domaine de Balme.

BTW: Daily Mail have obviously been reading / paraphrasing your site
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1238740/British-skier-missing-Alps-dead-Man-disappeared-taking-run-end-day-slopes.html

 
 
Posted: 27 December 2009 08:34 PM   [ # 2 ]  
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Reading more about this accident, it happened just near the Solonge piste, this is a really popular area to get a little bit off piste without straying away from visible lifts and pistes. This article seems to suggest he ‘got into trouble’ and was found a day later in drifted snow rather than setting off an avalanche

http://www.radiocity.co.uk/Article.asp?id=1639751&spid=25211

 
 
Posted: 27 December 2009 09:08 PM   [ # 3 ]  
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You could be right about the snowdrift theory.

I will wait to see if I get some more information about the incident. The press often like to treat everything that happens in the mountains as an avalanche. However it highlights that it can be dangerous both on and right next to the pistes. Still as someone pointed out to me today, 700,000 British visitors to the Alps each year and 30 deaths (including drunks freezing to death).

 
 
Posted: 28 December 2009 12:35 AM   [ # 4 ]  
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An avalanche blocked the road leading to Allos le Foux in the Southern Alps and two skiers in the Bozel Valley at la Plagne trigged a large slab avalanche. They were at 2500m on the south side of the Roche de Mio. They both remained on the surface of the slide but lost part of their gear.

 
 
Posted: 28 December 2009 12:54 AM   [ # 5 ]  
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Dan Fascia - 27 December 2009 07:56 PM

<<I’m becoming more wary of Le Tour, the safety record there must be appalling. Do you think that it is because it is perceived as an ‘easy’ ski area which also has very readily accessible off piste terrain which coerces the inexperienced into attempting them in unsuitable conditions and unprepared?>>

The ski area of Le Tour has a good safety record of protecting their pistes from avalanches. These are all off piste accidents. I do not think the ski area coerces anyone - people fool themselves and die each year in the alps whether at Le Tour or in other ‘easy’ resorts. I think statistics show that most avalanche deaths happen actually quite close to pistes. False sense of safety.

It appears that in this case, if he was just off the Solonges piste, that is in the middle of the resort and leads back to the main lift down. The piste is wide and marked with piste markers, but has large deep gullies if one goes not too far off the marked piste; natural little terrain traps in the level 4 avalanche danger posted that day. It becomes relatively dark at 5pm at this time of year and his friends reported him missing at 5.30pm according to the French press report in the Dauphiné. So by the time they called PGHM, he was likely already dead for more than an hour based on last lift times. In any case at that time of day the likelihood of finding him in the snow, cloud and darkness was always going to be poor unless he was still up and moving about himself, as he did not have a transciever. The French press reported the PGHM searchers found a small “coulée” of snow the following day at the edge of the Solonge piste ... that would normally translate as a slide ... and decided to probe it. « Nous avons repéré une petite coulée en bordure de la piste de Solonge, explique un gendarme secouriste. Dans le doute, une équipe est allée la sonder ». 

What we can take away from both of these incidents IMHO is that some skiers just seem to be absolutely ignorant of very basic mountain safety rules, and are dying as a consequence. The best ‘safety measures’ at Le Tour would not have saved either person as their own poor decisions were to blame for their demise. Last year, we had luck at Chamonix with lots and lots of stable snow and very few incidents. This year is starting off a bit of the opposite.

Everyone should know that you just do not go skiing off piste ANYWHERE without an education in avalanche safety and equipped with the proper gear, be trained and practiced in transceiver searches yourself and should always and only ski with others who are equipped and also know how to also use their gear (and who pay attention that everyone in the group is visible). Locals respect the off piste areas near Le Tour area greatly and do not go into these areas when the winds have created slabs - it is very undulating terrain, can be steep and gullied and therefore has plenty of natural terrain traps and certain areas which regularly go to ground. We all recall a man having his leg torn off in a slide several seasons ago on the Vallorcine/Swiss side off piste of Le Tour in the woods for example.

It’s clear from the lack of equipment on the dead man from Limoges that he had no avalanche training or awareness. However, the other 2 caught had transceivers - they should have known better than to allow him to come with them if they were indeed a set of friends skiing together, and they themselves should have known better than to venture there, period. The area he went to was very much off-piste with a rope to pass under and warning signs and not visible from chairs. As Andy Perkins pointed out, you could not have chosen a better place to find an avalanche if you tried on that day. It was obviously dangerous to anyone with the least bit of avalanche awareness training or in fact if you even noticed the massive wind lips formed or took a turn or two on any smaller slope of the same aspect, closer to the piste it was sliding like crazy and was enough to realize that venturing further was unwise.

The latest incident at Christmas whilst very sad, was also I must say a result of lack of mountain awareness too. There was a high avalanche risk marked that day and visibility was piss poor from about 2pm with snow squalls. You do not ski alone in bad visibility even on piste, especially at the end of the day when light is fading and people are leaving. It is unclear if he went off piste on purpose or in error but certainly one would not venture off piste alone in such conditions if you had the slightest ideas about mountains safety.

How many times does it take for people to die this way - alone on a mountain - whether it be hiking, biking or skiing - to know that splitting up and going alone is a bad idea in poor mountain weather ? I recall another incident a few years back at Le Brevent where an American died on a similar stormy day after telling his girlfriend he wanted to go off piste - she refused to go with him, and he refused to listen to reason and was only found that Spring. Don’t ski alone, most especially in bad weather or off piste. Don’t ski in natural terrain traps after fresh snow and high winds. This should be common sense but many people do not think about skiing as being ‘in the mountains’, but rather as being ‘in a resort’ even when they are off piste and completely out of the control of the ski area.

Le Tour is one of the worst places to be in off piste in a white out because it lacks features of any kind being above tree line, is rolling but also has steep gullies and some cliffs. If you stray off the piste and end up in a steep gully, taking a deadly tumble is not out of the question in addition to avalanche danger. A small slide localised in such a gully was also easy to expect in level 4 conditions.

Sad but somewhat inevitable tales. All we can do is to try to learn from them and not repeat their mistakes.

[ Edited: 28 December 2009 10:19 AM by firechick]
 
 
Posted: 28 December 2009 10:07 AM   [ # 6 ]  
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PS - upon reading it, the Sky News article seems to me to possibly be a poor translation to call it a snow drift and contains other spelling errors of the name of the resort ... Is it just me or is anyone else incredibly annoyed at how often the British press reports are ignorant, wrong or annoyingly misinformed whenever they report on a mountain/ski accident in the Alps ? Misspelling ski area, mountain or town names, not getting the area of death or accident correct (La Tour I must have read many times rather than Le Tour, saying someone dies on Mt Blanc when it is on another mountain completely etc.), having absolutely no understanding of the subject matter they write about when they report on ‘mountain tragedies’ as they seem to always call them, even when they were due to human error most of the time and others could be educated by knowing a simple fact such as that it is very important to always ski with others and to stay on piste in poor weather when avalanche warnings are high ? If they are this bad on something as simple as a ski resort name, and things that I know about personally being wrong .... what does this say to their reporting about arguably more important things like wars and deteriorating political situations ?? ARGH. Another UK press article recently said a doctor from the USA wanted by the FBI was found by the Italian Carbinieri on Mont Blanc ... when actually he was above Val Ferret at 2000m near the refuge Elena (2600m) ... that is near the Grand Col Ferret .... not Mont Blanc by a long shot !!! 

And on another topic ... is there any place in France that analyzes and publicly publishes the actual reasons for off piste ski accidents and deaths, or mountaineering accidents and deaths in the same way as “Accidents in North American Mountaineering” does so that others can learn from the mistakes made in other situations and learn to avoid them? I think this type of analysis benefits everyone. http://www.americanalpineclub.org/pt/accidentsinnorthamericanmountaineering . ? I so far have not found anything similar in the European Alps at all except some places which publish the counted up numbers of various accidents and put them into categories of what sport was practiced and was it a death or serious injury etc.... but no place that actually takes the time to publish the causal analysis of each incident.

 
 
Posted: 28 December 2009 12:31 PM   [ # 7 ]  
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Some journalists, like Antoine Chandelier in Chamonix or James Cove of the BBC have a good idea of what they are talking about but for the British press mountain accidents are is largely sensationalist space filler. That said, I’ve been contacted by a number of journalists over the years who’ve been told to cover a story by their editor and freely admit they no nothing of the mountains and snow but are at least trying to understand the subject.

It is all speculation, probably even for the police investigators but it would seem likely the man strayed or deliberately decided to ski fresh snow between the pistes and either fell, maybe due to the poor snow cover and terrain traps and was covered by fresh snow or triggered a small slide and was buried. Without checkiing further I can recall at least a couple of similar incidents in the last two years where skiers have probably strayed off piste in poor visibility and been buried.

Here is a link to the piste plan

http://www.compagniedumontblanc.fr/plan_balme.php

For those who don’t know the domain the Solonges is the red piste leading from 2270m in the center of the map so the incident was somewhere between 2270m and 1930m.

Here is the avalanche bulletin for the Haute-Savoie

N74241211
BULLETIN NEIGE ET AVALANCHE DE LA HAUTE SAVOIE

(VALABLE HORS DES PISTES BALISÉES ET OUVERTES)

POUR LE VENDREDI 25 DÉCEMBRE

RÉDIGÉ LE JEUDI 24 DÉCEMBRE

ESTIMATION DES RISQUES JUSQU’A VENDREDI SOIR :
Tous massifs de la Haute-Savoie :
plus haut que 2200/2400 m : risque fort (niveau 4),
plus bas que 2200/2400 m : risque marqué (niveau 3).

APERCU METEO JUSQU’A VENDREDI SOIR :

Soirée : très ventée par sud-ouest, isotherme 0 dg proche des 3000 m .
Nuit de jeudi à vendredi : passage perturbé, limite pluie-neige vers 2300/2000 m puis en baisse vers 1000/1200 m fin de nuit . Couche attendue vers 2500 m : 30 cm , localement 40 cm , ventée de sud-ouest puis ouest/sud-ouest. Foehn en première partie de nuit dans le MT-Blanc.
vendredi :  bien nuageux, quelques trouées, aussi quelques giboulées de neige , au final environ 5/10 cm vers 2000 m.
Vent à 2000 m : Sud-Ouest à ouest 40/60 km/h cette nuit puis ouest 40 km/h faiblissant . Rafales de Foehn près du Mont-Blanc première partie de nuit.
Vent à 4000 m : Sud-Ouest 100/120 km/h basculant nord-ouest vendredi 40/60 km/h.

CONDITIONS D’ENNEIGEMENT :

Si elles sont faibles en montant jusque vers 1800 m environ (pluie et redoux), elles deviennent bonnes à plus haute altitude malgré les ravages des vents de sud-ouest/foehn.
Epaisseurs moyennes ce jeudi vers 1500 m 30/50 cm, vers 2000 m autour du mètre.
Qualité de la neige attendue vendredi : jusque vers 2000 m environ , une sous-couche molle surmontée de quelques centimètres de neige fraîche lourde. Plus haut neige fraîche de plus en plus épaisse et de plus en plus légère. En haute montagne neige compactée.

STABILITE DU MANTEAU NEIGEUX :
un manteau neigeux encore très piègeux.

Malgré un tassement du manteau neigeux ce jeudi en moyenne montagne , l’architecture de ce manteau neigeux reste bien précaire. Des plaques à vent ainsi que des structures de plaques dues à des sous-couches sans cohésion persistent dans de nombreuses pentes. Et de nouvelles instabilités vont se former la nuit de jeudi à vendredi .  Les sorties à skis ou raquettes demandent expérience et connaissance du terrain et surtout une grande prudence, les conditions nivologiques sont actuellement piègeuses .  Les risques augmentent nettement avec l’altitude, ils deviennent forts en dépassant les 2200/2400 m où une seule personne peut briser une plaque de forte épaisseur (supérieure à 1m). Localement toute le manteau neigeux peut être mobiliser pour une avalanche avec une cassure nette ou alors en escaliers.

Des purges devraient déjà avoir lieu la nuit de jeudi à vendredi.

TENDANCE ULTERIEURE DU RISQUE :
samedi , temps froid puis ensoleillé, assez doux dans les adrets. Les risques de déclencher une avalanche de plaque vont rester probablement élevés.

BONNES COURSES .......PRUDENCE

So avalanche risk of Considerable (3/5), the break from High to Considerable is due to the rain to 2200m that somewhat stablized the snowpack. However skier triggered avalanches are still possible although more localized than at higher altitude. Gilles Brunot (the forecaster for Chamonix) notes that going off piste requires experience and good terrain knowledge and a lot of care and the the snowpack is complex and dangerous for the unwary. Of course the victim probably never saw this bulletin.

If you have the time you can read the PisteHors.com reports of all fatal incidents since 2002 here:
http://pistehors.com/news/ski/categories/

This is a summary of incidents in 2008/9 with conclusions
http://pistehors.com/pistehors/avalanche/avalanche-analysis-2009.pdf

and for the last few years:-
http://pistehors.com/news/ski/comments/0862-analysis-avalanche-accidents-france-2007-2008/
http://pistehors.com/news/ski/comments/0779-french-avalanche-analysis-2006-2007/
http://pistehors.com/news/ski/comments/0623-analysis-french-avalanche-accidents-2005-2006/
http://pistehors.com/backcountry/wiki/Avalanches/French-Avalanche-And-Off-Piste-Accidents-2004-2005
http://pistehors.com/backcountry/wiki/Avalanches/French-Avalanche-And-Off-Piste-Accidents-2003-2004
http://pistehors.com/backcountry/wiki/Avalanches/French-Avalanche-And-Off-Piste-Accidents-2002-2003

but there is nothing detailed like the American book for France. Indeed until we started collating information on PisteHors the whole thing was a bit hush hush. Now we have the ANENA giving much more information than they once did and Data Avalanches has started collating avalanche information:-

http://www.data-avalanche.org/alea_avalanches/

 
 
Posted: 28 December 2009 02:50 PM   [ # 8 ]  
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Dan - no one is coercing anyone to ski off piste. There are large signs at Le Tour warning of the avalanche risk, and you are right to be wary! The safety record there is no better or worse than any other resort.

Having said that, Le Tour is a great area for off piste - it has trees, steeps, interesting terrain (especially good for avalanche awareness courses) and no crevasses. I spend a lot of time there at work and play.

I saw the site being probed for the British skier in the morning of the 26th. It is at about 2050m. The stream runs NE to SW and the true left bank (with a NW aspect) avalanched in classic slab form over a width of about 30m and a depth of 30 - 50 cm, easily visible from the Liaison piste a few hundred meters away. As Firechick points out, this is one of Le Tour’s many classic terrain traps.

Always wear a transceiver and carry a shovel and probe when you’re off piste.
Always ski with someone else off piste
Always be wary of any off piste slope between 30 and 45 degrees

 
 
Posted: 28 December 2009 10:38 PM   [ # 9 ]  
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Thanks for the comments Andy, it is nice to get a pro guide’s input.

Here is a link to Andy’s website: http://www.andypmountainguide.com/

 
 
Posted: 29 December 2009 02:14 PM   [ # 10 ]  
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Its not just Whiteouts and Avalanches we have to worry about, three of us had our moment of madness at Le Tour on January 13th last.
We were sat outside the restaurant at the top of the first lift at about 2pm on a lovely sunny day looking up at the L’Aiguillette de Possettes, having watched a couple of borders come down, we planned our route (looked simple enough), and off we went to the top of the drag lift, and under the rope.
To cut a long story short, the snow was not very good to say the least, even at the top. However,like fools, we continued to the avalanche barriers, where we had planned to turn down, unfortunately we turned at the wrong barrier, and after wandering around like lost sheep, I crashed through some undergrowth and ended up on the apex of the main cliff, on a patch of mud and shale with my two companions just behind me, I tried to remove my skies and walk off, likewise the other two.
Needless to say,I slipped on the semi frozen ground having no crampons (or anything else !), and slid about 10 meters before managing to stop a couple of meters from the edge, the other two came rolling down a narrow gully and stopped themselves by grabbing hold of the bushes.
After many heart rending moments, and battered and bruised, we managed to drag ourselves away from the drop which took nearly an hour, I sat down and started shaking violently from shock, I had lost a pole, one of my companions lost both of his.
We ended up stumbling down (mainly backwards), by the time we got to the village it was dark and we were in a complete state of exhaustion.
Considering we have been skiing for many years, and thought we had mastered the art of skiing on and of the piste, the stupidity that we demonstrated that afternoon makes me cringe.
We are all grateful to be still here.

 
 
Posted: 29 December 2009 03:30 PM   [ # 11 ]  
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Dan Dare: very honest reply and a good warning to all.
In response to Andy Perkins’ post: I agree we should all be allowed to be grown up and if we decide to ski off piste (especially alone) we should be prepared to face the consequences.
BUT: I was at Le Tour a week ago, and the left and right hand piste markers are the SAME. In many places the right hand ones have long orange tops, the lefts short. From personal experience it’s VERY easy at Le Tour in a whiteout to end up off piste when you think you’re still on (you’re following right hand piste markers, piste turns hard right, you go straight on: the next piste marker is a left hand one but you’ll think it’s a right), and I would bet that’s what happened in this instance.

 
 
Posted: 29 December 2009 04:46 PM   [ # 12 ]  
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Hmmmm. Considering the well informed replies I am not sure I should pitch in, but here goes; maybe the reason for some of these avalanche accidents - apart from the obvious cascade of little events that lead to major ones such as 2 transceivers among 3, piste markers and poor route choice, is that most Brits or European city folk on holiday don’t live in the high mountain environment and therefore lack the breadth and depth of feeling for conditions that mountaineers on ski’s, or regular off piste hounds and tourers do, many of whom live and work in the mountains as many of you who have replied do. We/you have a kind of unconscious background scanner in our heads taking in info on weather/conditions from just opening the curtains looking up the hill and concluding risk long before heading out. Most folk can’t do this if they aren’t tuned in to it because in daily life they don’t have to be.

Also, a lot of avalanche educators seem to emphasize the reduction of risk.  But the reduction of consequence can’t be ignored as we all want to ski off piste and everyone gets a scare now and again by being a bit off the mark.  The little extra edge of consequence reduction with ability and luck often is all that turns it round. I hope that makes sense .........

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Posted: 29 December 2009 05:28 PM   [ # 13 ]  
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The vallorcine side of the mountain was closed again this afternoon with reports of an avalanche in the Belle Place area. The lifty I spoke to didn’t know if anyone was involved. I also witnessed the last casualty being evacuated by helicopter and was informed by the piste patrol that it was just an exercise. It seems the attitude of “hush hush” continues.

 
 
Posted: 29 December 2009 07:42 PM   [ # 14 ]  
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Anselm Baud in his guide book to skiing in Mont Blanc which includes all the ED and TD extreme descents in the region describes the north side of the Tete de Balme as one of the most dangerous places for avalanches in the area.

I was at Le Tour both on the day of the first incident and on Boxing Day when the British victim was found. On the first day there had been snow and very strong winds, personally I have had some fantastic times in the back bowls but leave them well alone for maybe a week after significant snow. I did see the helicopter recovering the British man and from what I could see the recovery was from very close to the side of the piste.

 
 
Posted: 30 December 2009 12:03 AM   [ # 15 ]  
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I did not mean to imply that anyone is coercing skiers off piste, other than the beautiful readily accessible terrain of the Tour area and powder which tempts us all under the ropes. There is certainly ample warning all around.

It’s great to see an in depth analysis and discussion of the situation with well-informed contributors - we’re all here to learn something…

 
 
   
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