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One fatality in avalanche at Haute Nendaz
Posted: 19 December 2012 05:14 PM  
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Some brief information on an avalanche in Haute Nendaz today. The reports seem to say the skier deployed an airbag but was still buried.

http://www.24heures.ch/suisse/faits-divers/Une-skieuse-suedoise-tuee-dans-une-avalanche-a-Nendaz/story/14331887

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Posted: 19 December 2012 05:19 PM   [ # 1 ]  
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Some more photos showing a major slide

http://www.20min.ch/ro/lecteurreporter/story/13808746

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Posted: 19 December 2012 11:08 PM   [ # 2 ]  
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Yes it seems an airbag was used. There is obviously a slide size that just overwhelms this gear.

Nendaz is one of those big freeride “secret spots” isn’t it?

 
 
Posted: 20 December 2012 07:52 AM   [ # 3 ]  
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I lose track of the secret spots I’m afraid. Col de la Mouches is a pretty standard descent in good conditions. Like a lot of popular descents it gets tracked pretty quickly and people traverse further and further looking for fresh snow. It’s aspect is in the north quadrant, NNE I think, I wasn’t there but I’d not have expected it to have stabilised at all in the current conditions and I wouldn’t have planned to ski it but I’m probably more conservative than average.

The reports are talking about a slide 100m wide and 250m long with a slab 1m80cm which went nearly to ground.

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Posted: 20 December 2012 10:49 AM   [ # 4 ]  
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Another airbag fatality in Saint Anton in Austria on the 18th/Dec/2012

A group of Russian skiers left the Schöngraben Lift and took the sometimes extremely steep Kapall - Törli variant in snow, wind and poor visibility. The police say the group became disorientated and found themselves on a 45° steep narrow couloir complex. One of the group members, who had lost contact with the main group triggered a small fresh snow avalanche. The other group members alerted the rescue services when their friend failed to show. The victim was found under 1.7 meters of snow in a terrain trap. He had deployed his air airbag but this did not save him.

http://lawinenwarndienst.blogspot.co.at/2012/12/details-zum-todlichen-lawinenunfall-im_20.html

 
 
Posted: 20 December 2012 11:47 AM   [ # 5 ]  
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Although airbags offer a significant increase of the survival rate, their effectiveness is quite limited in avalanches that end in terrain traps. Also they offer limited protection from injuries. So, people should never put all their faith in airbags. A good read about a recent study on the effectiveness of airbags: http://blog.oplopanax.ca/2012/11/canadian-avalanche-air-bag-study/

 
 
Posted: 21 December 2012 12:36 PM   [ # 6 ]  
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Interesting.  Has a similar study been done on avalungs?  It would be interesting to compare the two - at the moment people seem to opt for one or the other, but the choice seems to be more emotional than scientific.

 
 
Posted: 21 December 2012 02:17 PM   [ # 7 ]  
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The avalung success stories I’ve read are fairly ambiguous, it seems quite a hard thing to test properly. I don’t think there’s much emotion required though, it’s probably a lot more to do with cash.

The selling point of an airbag is an extremely well known and well understood scientific principle, ie inverse segregation. It has the beauty of being easy to test, basically you can toss a dummy with an inflated airbag into an avalanche and prove very quickly that your product does what it claims*. The Canadian study above takes that further and looks how it’s worked in the field.

It’s always looked to me that testing the avalung is pretty hard and the success stories are hard to interpret. I wonder if there’s enough cases to be significant in any study if you used the same methodology as the Canadian study and restricted it to professional users.

The Canadian study makes some valid points about manufacturer data for ABS but even that’s better than anything I’ve seen for an avalung so far. There was an ISSW paper years ago about the avalung which might appear on google.

It’s also commented that BCA were critical of the study which I think overstates it a bit. It’s just good science to have comments and feedback from other professionals. The BCA numbers I saw were suggesting over 50% for incidents involving airbags which looks about right compared to the high 90’s figures we’ve seen in the past.

All that said, I’m sure most purchases of airbags are emotional, or based on what someone said on the internet, but that’s hardly surprising as you can say much the same about buying cars, fridges, pensions or houses.

* proving the concept is one thing, demonstrating it works in practice is something else entirely.

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Posted: 21 December 2012 05:22 PM   [ # 8 ]  
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There’s certainly a lot to be said for airbags (other than the cost).  On the flip side, it gives you just one bite at the apple (once you’ve deployed it, it’s useless until you refill it) and if it doesn’t inflate (37% of the time in the study) you’re stuffed.  Then again, with an avalung you do need to have (and keep) the mouthpiece in your mouth and you do need someone to dig you out - it won’t help keep you on the surface.  One question would be what percentage of people buried with an airbag died of asphyxia (rather than trauma) such that an avalung could have saved them.  I suppose in an ideal world you’d want both.

 
 
Posted: 21 December 2012 05:46 PM   [ # 9 ]  
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I’ve seen those Frankenstein rigs of airbags and avalungs on the Internet. I did wonder what those guys were doing that required so much safety gear, I’d probably just skip that slope.

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