Friday, 29 June, 2007
Avalanche airbag wins design award
The ABS Avalanche Airbag has saved dozens of lives since it was launched. The system works by inflating two gas filled sacks in the event of an avalanche. The extra volume keeps a victim on top of the slide. Statistics show that there is an exponential risk of death depending on burial depth. The ABS Airbag doesn’t solve two problems: protecting a victim during a fall and secondary avalanches.
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Tuesday, 19 June, 2007
Val Thorens Tarps Glacier
Local ski instructor Philippe Martin summed up the problem “This map, it is 20 years old, you see all these areas marked as glaciers, come back this summer and you will see they are gone”. Val Thorens may be the highest ski resort in Europe but even its lofty summits and twinkling glaciers are suffering from the changing climate. The resort is fighting back. From the spring of 2008 the Savoie resort, on the edge of the Vanoise National Park, plans to cover part of its glacier with a giant tarpaulin.
Glaciers at Val Thorens, snow covered, but for how long?
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Sunday, 17 June, 2007
Climbers killed by avalanche on Mont-Blanc
An avalanche on the Mont-Blanc du Tacul has hit a group of four Swiss climbers this morning around 9h00. A 40 year old climber was killed by the slide. A search is continuing for a 39 year old guide who it is believed was swept into a rimaye (a crevasse formed where the top of a glacier joins the mountain) by the avalanche. A female climber was heliported in a serious condition to hospital in Sallanches. She had been under the snow for 90 minutes. Two Italian climbers were also on the route at 4100 meters.
Mont Blanc du Tacul. Photo: Daniel Carollo
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Monday, 11 June, 2007
Abondance abandons skiing
The news has sent shockwaves through the Haute-Savoie. The local council at Abondance has voted to close the ski lifts. The ski resort has been loss making for the last 15 years. The local council tried desperately to find a buyer before the start of the season but was forced to run the lifts over the winter. This year’s poor snow was the final nail in the coffin. Requiring over half a million euros in investments the end has none the less brought strong reactions from the 1400 local residents and businesses.
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Sunday, 03 June, 2007
Skier killed in the Cosmiques Couloir
A skier has been killed in the Cosmiques couloir today around 11h00. The man, who lived in the Grenoble area, lost his grip on ice and fell 500 meters. The couloir had a goulotte (ice band) in the middle. The couloir is reached on the west (Bossons) side of the Aiguille du Midi. It often requires roping up to reach the skiing. News of the accident has shaken members of the elite ski mountaineering fraternity in Grenoble who knew the victim well.
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