Much of the Alps and Pyrenees has suffered from a sketchy snowpack over the last couple of days with 40-50cm of fresh snow in the Northern Alps since Thursday. This was accompaned by strong winds from the west then north which moved a lot of snow around Wind transport was clearly evident on Sunday morning.

In the French Alps a ski tourer was lucky to escape with his life in the Vercors after being buried for 40 minutes on Saturday morning. Two skiers were in the steep and exposed east facing Couloir des Sultanes above the commune of la Gua when they triggered a windslab. One skier was able to stop himself after about 15 minutes but his companion was swept over cliffs and buried. Unable to locate his friend with his avalanche beacon he called the rescue services. The pilot of the rescue helicopter spotted what looked like a glove on the surface of the slide and when a police specialist was dropped to investigate he found it was still connected to the missing man. He was taken to the University Hospital in la Tronche with a fractured femur. The avalanche services noted a number of other slides and it seems that east facing slopes were the worst affected. In Chamonix a snowshoer was killed after falling over cliffs.

In the Pyrenees at le Mourtis well known local man and experienced skier Jean-Paul Mailheau was killed by a slide in the middle of the afternoon. The 67 year old was off piste in the Lanières sector with two friends when they triggered a slide. His two companions were able to save themselves by grabbing trees.

As Ax-Bonascre a snowboarder from Toulouse triggered an avalanche skiing beside the Savis piste with a friend. The incident occured around midday. The boarder was carried head first into a stream. His friend was unable to rescue him and it took a team of pisteurs from the resort equipped with shovels to recover the victim. The resort director warned off piste skiers that 20-30cm of snow can hide a number of dangers including rocks and streams.

There were a number of avalanches in Switzerland with two deaths, in the Valais and at St Gall and a number of injuries in the Tessin. At Grimentz a snowboarder who was skiing off piste but close to open runs was buried by a slide, recovered in a state of hypothermia he died later in hospital. At St Gall close to Amden a snowshoer and two skiers were buried by a slide, killing the snowshoer.

http://www.tsr.ch/tsr/index.html?siteSect=200001&sid=11767183

redac - 01 February 2010 10:34 AM

There were a number of avalanches in Switzerland with two deaths, in the Valais and at St Gall and a number of injuries in the Tessin. At Grimentz a snowboarder who was skiing off piste but close to open runs was buried by a slide, recovered in a state of hypothermia he died later in hospital. At St Gall close to Amden a snowshoer and two skiers were buried by a slide, killing the snowshoer.

http://www.tsr.ch/tsr/index.html?siteSect=200001&sid=11767183

I’m actually away at the moment so that was news to me, I’m not too surprised though. I’ve been appalled this season at just where people are skiing. There’s some dangerous slopes near the pistes in the area and I see people skiing or boarding them all the time when they’re not safe. I posted those photo’s of a tiny slide in Grimentz a few weeks back and while they were still clearing it up people were going back onto much worse slopes.

In fact someone just told me where this happened, it was the exact slope I was commenting on when I posted the photo’s recently. I’ve been alarmed by some of the antics in that sub-area all season.

In the past I have criticised (perhaps wrongly) Le Tour for not signposting risks sufficiently in my opinion. On Saturday there had been immense snowfall in Chamonix, and Le Tour in particular was windy and had very deep snowdrifts. The avalanche risk was 4/5 and strong warnings were written on the information boards at all of the lift stations.

Additionally, the Domaine de Balme off the Tete de Balme was extensively marked with black/yellow flags and roped poles and there was a large banner saying “Avalanche risk extremely high, do not ski this area”. As a compromise they had not bashed the red and blue runs adjacent which also take you all the way down to Vallorcine, perhaps as an incentive to powderhounds saying don’t take the risk off piste but do enjoy the coniditons in the area we have patrolled.

I thought this was an excellent way of trying to please customers yet keep them safe at the same time.

Unfortunatelly, we even have had two avalanche casualties even here, in “moderately flat” Czech Rep. last weekend.... Windswept powders are treacherous regardless the altitude…

Dan Fascia - 01 February 2010 07:53 PM

In the past I have criticised (perhaps wrongly) Le Tour for not signposting risks sufficiently in my opinion. On Saturday there had been immense snowfall in Chamonix, and Le Tour in particular was windy and had very deep snowdrifts. The avalanche risk was 4/5 and strong warnings were written on the information boards at all of the lift stations.

Additionally, the Domaine de Balme off the Tete de Balme was extensively marked with black/yellow flags and roped poles and there was a large banner saying “Avalanche risk extremely high, do not ski this area”. As a compromise they had not bashed the red and blue runs adjacent which also take you all the way down to Vallorcine, perhaps as an incentive to powderhounds saying don’t take the risk off piste but do enjoy the coniditons in the area we have patrolled.

I thought this was an excellent way of trying to please customers yet keep them safe at the same time.

Can you be sure that’s what going on? Mostly things don’t get pisted for mundane reasons like it’s still binning down with snow or the guys are tied up elsewhere. Most commonly it’s because they couldn’t get out overnight safely and the safety issues during the day mean they can’t get gear onto the runs.

Whatever the reason though, I think you make a fantastic point, no amount of warnings are going to work for some people but a distraction technique of providing a bit of safe fun would probably be highly successful.

ise - 01 February 2010 10:11 PM

Whatever the reason though, I think you make a fantastic point, no amount of warnings are going to work for some people but a distraction technique of providing a bit of safe fun would probably be highly successful.

Isn’t that what they do in Zinal to some extent?

The local paper reported another near miss in the Isere and another broken femur. That’s two femurs broken over the weekend.

http://www.ledauphine.com/index.jspz?chaine=25&article=256345

the guys were climbing on snowshoes with the aim of making a snowboard descent under the full moon of the Piquet de Nantes. I must admit the full moon was very tempting, it was almost like daytime on Saturday evening on the slopes. There was another slide on the Piquet de Nantes on Sunday morning involving ski tourers. Personally I’ve nothing against night skiing but you have to appreciate that it can cause a lot of problems for the rescue services if you have an accident.

The snowshoer who died in Chamonix was in the Gorges de l’Arveyron.

davidof - 01 February 2010 10:27 PM

Isn’t that what they do in Zinal to some extent?

kind of, depending how you look at it there’s a cynicism or a pragmatism to what they do

My opinion is that the “freeride” area is really an accumulation zone above some pistes, a lift and the village to an extent. It has to be managed in some way, for a not a lot of extra work the danger to areas below can be controlled and the slope itself secured and you’ve got a freeride area

We’re able to spot these areas and see where opportunities to ski safely exist off the back of this routine securing of lifts and pistes but obviously a lot of guys on holiday can’t so it is a good idea to stick a sign up and call it “freeride” and I reckon a lot more could be done for not a lot of extra effort.

The slide in Grimentz was apparently near the Abondance itinerary which really needs explicitly securing, there’s little danger (that I can see) of a slide in there impacting lifts and pistes so it sometimes doesn’t get done and it’s closed. Equally, there’s another series of couloirs nearby which need securing to open the pistes below, they make pretty great skiing but don’t get skied as much.

I posted that an went to bed, then realized what I’d posted wasn’t quite what I meant.

I shouldn’t have suggested that any slope is automatically safe just because there’s a lift or piste below, that’s not true of course.

The Ax-Bonsacre incident sounds like a snow bridge collapse.

There were a number of other incidents in the Pyrenees over the last few days.

At Cauterets a young snowboarder was seriously injured on the 1st Feb. on the north face of the Mauloc. We have talked about this route on Pistehors and commented

The name, Mauloc should be a warning being derived from the latin malus (bad, wicked).

http://pistehors.com/backcountry/wiki/Pyrenees/Cauterets

The ski area had 1 meter of snow over 48 hours. The slide was on the north-east slopes and took most of the face. The boarder was carried 600 meters and partially buried by the slide. According to media sources the Baumes drag lift which accesses the sector was closed due to the avalanche risk and the boarders had climbed on foot.

More serious, a Spanish man aged in his 30s was killed on Tuesday (2/2/2010) by an avalanche close to the col de Portalet (Atlantic Pyrenees) while skiing with two friends who were on snowshoes. One of the friends was also caught by the slide. The rescue services were alerted around 15h00. The buried man was found by an avalanche dog brought to the scene by the PGHM.

A pistehors reader also wrote to mention about some piste accidents invoving motoneige:-

have you heard of any developments in the Hautes Pyrenees?

Last Tuesday there were 2 serious incidents 1 at Bareges and 1 at Hautacam involving skiers in collision with motorneige on the piste. Apparently the vehicles are now banned on the slopes. I have not posted as I do not have confirmation of these developments (although I witnessed one of the incidents)and as you can understand the organisations will be a little sensitive.

I’m always surprised at the speed pisteurs whizz about on these vehicles even where there is little visibility. Mountain Doctors say there were 12478 collosions on open ski runs in 2007/8 largely between skiers but sometimes with static objects such as snow making gear - a number of these were fatal.

remarkable story from the local newspaper:

http://www.nouvelliste.ch/fr/news/suisse/news.php?idIndex=2&idContent=185825

The story makes mention of some other incidents, I’m not sure if they’re what SLF are referring to in the daily report :

On Sunday in the Valais and in southern regions it was generally sunny. In northern regions it was predominantly overcast and there was a final bit of snowfall. The midday temperatures at 2000 m were minus 7 degrees in northern regions and minus 2 degrees in southern regions. A northeasterly wind was blowing at moderate to strong velocity on the northern Alpine Ridge and in the central and eastern parts of the Main Alpine Ridge in particular, elsewhere the wind was light to moderate.
Snowdrift accumulations which were prone to triggering have formed. In addition, trigger sensitive locations which are older and blanketed over with fresh fallen snow remain highly delicate, making the overall situation more treacherous. Avalanches can attain medium size. On the Main Alpine Ridge and in southern regions, the snow layering is more favourable and it is less likely that avalanches will break through to the old snowpack. Exceedingly numerous avalanches triggered by backcountry skiers and freeriders on Sunday underscored again the very treacherous situation.