It doesn’t look much does it?
Anselme Baud was interviewed by the Dauphine Libere
http://www.ledauphine.com/index.jspz?&dossier=172
Anselme Baud says he’s alarmed that no-one has reacted to the fact that 17 French guides have died over the last 16 months. He’s annoyed by the fatalist attitude that follows every incident involving locals.
“The should wait 2 to 3 days before setting out on exposed routes, it is the basics”, Baud was at the site of the avalanche at the col d’Encrenaz towards the vallon de Bérard, which cost the lives of three Haut-Savoyards. He analyses and decrypts “the previous days there was rain to 3000m, then a cold snap created an ice crust, then two days of snow, around 60cm at 2600m”. Add wind from the south-west leading to accumulations on north-east facing slopes and the conditions were right for an avalanche.
The way they skied the slope, once again. the guide, an expert, was not surprised “The skiers arrived together from above a big convex slope where, in stable conditions, you would look, then ski once by one. Three of them skied together, breaking the fragile anchors between the big slab of snow resting on the hard crust. Where the slope is really convex, the worst of situations. The three skiers chose to stop. Why at that spot in the middle of that vast slope?”
For Anselme Baud, “it is a fatal example and a terrible sad event for the families, but we should use this example, yet another, to warn people. If you want to reduce these group suicides due to the lack of respect of simple safety rules, you need to get back to common sense. It is worse because they were skilled, expert skiers full of enthusiasm to enjoy the beautiful mountainss where they regularly skied...”
