Four skiers have been killed by an avalanche off piste skiing in the Vallonnets (approx 2500m) in the Fornet sector of Val d’Isere. The large avalanche, approx 250 meters wide, occurred at 10h30. The slide descended as far as the Isere stream. The Vallonnet is largely N/NW facing. A 5th person was buried but was not injured. The skiers were part of a group of 7 including a ski instructor. A fatal accident killed a British man in the same sector on Boxing day.

- dotted line (solid line is the Grand Vallon).

Meteo France gives the avalanche risk as 2/5 evolving to risk 3 during the course of today but warns of old weak layers of facetted snow above 2200/2400 meters especially on northern slope aspects. 30-50cm of fresh snow has fallen on these layers over the last 48 hours although without wind.

I remember being with a guided group that triggered a medium avalanche of around 30cm depth on these slopes. There are some convex rollovers leading onto steep slopes. Our slide probably ran 300m, almost as far as the track that descends from the Malpasset to the Charles bridge at Fornet.

I wonder how so many got caught into this? islands of safety?

i’ve stayed at the refuge prariond and toured up and away, but on our descent back to the car park at Fornet we followed the main route out, along the river/valley.  am i right in thinking there are not really many safe run-out zones for avalanches.

we’ll keep an eye on what further news there is from Henry and is HAT crew.

It was a very big slide and maybe this was a factor. I suspect the ski instructor didn’t expect such a big slide given the avalanche bulletin (which talked about risk 2 evolving to risk 3 in the course of the day). I imagine a smaller slide took layers down to ground level. The slide ran from 2800 to 2100 meters. The dead are 2 French, a Swede and British national.

[update]
I checked the weather station across the valley from the incident. There has been about 15cm of snow over the last 24 hours. The wind is from the south and very light (20km/h) with no snow transport. There was an additional 10cm over Sunday night which fell with light snow transport from West to East sector slopes. Temperature was about -5C at 10.30h. The previous big snowfall was around Christmas. Obviously it has remained below freezing at the reported start point of the slide and rain has only fallen to around 2400m so instabilities higher up will not have been cleaned out - hence the bulletin’s warnings of danger over 2200/2400m. The temperature gradient is not that high - 80cm of snowpack for around -5C for the last week, I wonder if the problem was surface hoar formation then 25cm of fresh snow in two falls, a surface slide which then pulled out some underlying weaknesses?

OliC - 11 January 2011 06:02 PM

I wonder how so many got caught into this? islands of safety?

… am i right in thinking there are not really many safe run-out zones for avalanches.

Thoughts go out to all involved. Grim news from Val at the moment.

No run out as such, just pitches and short plateaus emptying into and filling the Gorge.  With such a wide slab, I imagine it took all those below the fracture line - which was probably all those buried.  It’s basically the avalanche debris in the Gorge upon which you ski on the way out after descending further up the valley having skied Pointe Pers, Gros Caval, etc.  Any news on whether anyone was wearing ABS?

Grinning - 11 January 2011 07:23 PM

Any news on whether anyone was wearing ABS?

What terrible news. I ordered myself a Snowpulse yesterday having researched this site on related articles. If the Telegraph is accurate it would appear that there is another example of failure to trigger the air bag.

“The four dead skiers - a British man, a French man, a French woman and a third man whose nationality is not yet known, were found buried under several feet of snow.

All were equipped with avalanche transceivers, a type of radio equipment used to track skiers. It emits a pulse signal which can be picked up by a search transceiver.

The first person was dug out after 10 minutes and the last was found 20 minutes after the avalanche struck.

The skiers, aged between 30 and 50, were in an area known as Pont St Charles, a popular off-piste sector at around an altitude of 8,800 feet and were skiing with a professional guide.

A spokesman for the mountain rescue said: “It was a very, very big avalanche. We don’t yet know what set it off. We have launched an investigation. It is possible that the group of seven skiers could have set the avalanche off. If one person had been skiing perhaps there would have not been an avalanche.

“The first rescuer was there within a few minutes. And there were four doctors at the scene. But the four skiers were all pronounced dead on the slope.

“One of them was equipped with an Avalanche Airbag but it had not inflated.

“All of the skiers were wearing avalanche transceivers so they were found fairly quickly.

“Of the seven skiers, two managed to stay on top of the snow and one woman was partly buried, just her legs. But she had no serious injuries. The four people who died were all buried completely.

“We are in the process of trying to contact families.” “

As far as I am aware just wearing avalanche beacons.

Here is the avalanche bulletin for the day… note that the resort may well issue its own bulletin different from this one, however for legal purposes it is the Meteo France bulletin which applies. That doesn’t mean you should ignore the Val d’Isere bulletin as they may have important local knowledge.

N73100111
BULLETIN D’ESTIMATION DU RISQUE D’AVALANCHE
de SAVOIE
valable hors des pistes balisées et ouvertes
POUR LE MARDI 11 JANVIER 2011
(rédigé le lundi 10 janvier)

ESTIMATION DES RISQUES JUSQU’A MARDI SOIR :
Sur BAUGES : RISQUE LIMITE - niveau 2
Sur BEAUFORTAIN, VANOISE, HAUTE TARENTAISE, MAURIENNE et HAUTE MAURIENNE : RISQUE LIMITE - niveau 2 évoluant en RISQUE MARQUE - niveau 3

APERCU METEO JUSQU’A MARDI SOIR :
Passage perturbé d’OUEST en journée (15 à 25cm).
isotherme 0°C : 1500 mètres.
Vent général à 3000 m : OUEST 20 à 40 km/h.

CONDITIONS D’ENNEIGEMENT :
L’enneigement s’est bien améliorée avec les récentes chutes de neige (10 à 30cm). Toutefois, la situation est un peu catastrophique en-dessous de 1500 à 1800 mètres en versant SUD et 1200 à 1500 mètres en versant NORD avec des hauteurs de neige vraiment faibles pour la saison. Les différents redoux, soit liés aux pluies régulières jusqu’à 2000 à 2300 mètres ou les épisodes de vent de SUD, ont bien entamé le “capital” neige au sol. Et pourtant, au niveau des cumuls de neige fraîche depuis début novembre, on est bien placé. Bref, un curieux hiver…
Qualité du ski pour mardi : neige fraîche épaisse en altitude sur 20 à 40cm.

STABILITE DU MANTEAU NEIGEUX :
DES DEPARTS NAUTRELS D’AVALANCHES L’APRES-MIDI

Après 48h de redoux, une nouvelle perturbation s’est invitée hier dimanche 9 sur nos massifs déposant 15 à 30cm à 2300 mètres avec des vents faibles. Ce matin, mis à part les quelques déclenchement préventifs, l’activité avalancheuse est faible.

Une nouvelle perturbation est prévue demain mardi 11 avec 15 à 25cm à 2500 mètres et des vents d’OUEST de 30 à 40 km/h. Cette couche de neige assez légère devrait se déposer sur un faible enneigement dans les Bauges et assez bien stabilisé. Quelques pentes raides peuvent partir naturellement au dessus de 1800 mètres. Dans les autres massifs, les chutes de neige prévues vont se déposer sur un manteau neigeux assez bien stabilisé en dessous de 2200 à 2400 mètres. Le risque devrait augmenter l’après-midi avec quelques départs naturels d’avalanches dans les pentes raides sous le poids des nouvelles chutes. Ces avalanches restent peu volumineuses en général. Au dessus de 2200 à 2400 mètres, l’épaisseur de neige “mobilisable” va augmenter l’après-midi, proche de 30 à 50cm dans certains massifs (Beaufortain, Nord de la Haute-Tarentaise..). L’empilement des différentes couches reste toutefois assez stable (pas de vent..). Le seul problème reste les sous-couches en profondeur qui sont assez fragiles (faces planes..). Se méfier des proximités de crêtes ou départs de pentes raides à très raides qui restent à aborder avec prudence (couches fragiles moins enfouies), surtout dans les faces NORD à NORD-EST mais aussi NORD-OUEST ainsi que la haute-montagne au dessus de 2800 mètres où le vent a plus soufflé les jours précédents. 

TENDANCE ULTERIEURE DU RISQUE :
Stationnaire.

andy - 11 January 2011 09:55 PM

Grinning - 11 January 2011 07:23 PM

Any news on whether anyone was wearing ABS?

If the Telegraph is accurate...

You’ll notice that the Telegraph has copied some sentences out of this thread.

Thanks Andy, interesting information about the ABS (see frontpage article)

Airbag failed to deploy after handle pulled? Burst valve on bottle failed to burst? or simply skier unable to pull handle? So many possible critical failures for a single-use item. Wonder if we will learn which one resulted in failure to deploy.

Grinning - 11 January 2011 10:53 PM

Airbag failed to deploy after handle pulled? Burst valve on bottle failed to burst? or simply skier unable to pull handle? So many possible critical failures for a single-use item. Wonder if we will learn which one resulted in failure to deploy.

The police investigation may establish about the airbags but it is not easy to get this kind of information. I’ve tried to find out more about the Chartreuse avalanche earlier in the season where at least one airbag was deployed. I think the ABS are pretty reliable but training seems to be an issue as is exposure and big avalanches triggered above.

According to the Guardian.co.uk report they contacted the Prefecture who told them all the group had airbags. This would be quite possible in Val d’Isere but obviously remains to be confirmed.

"Airbag failed to deploy after handle pulled? Burst valve on bottle failed to burst? or simply skier unable to pull handle? So many possible critical failures for a single-use item. Wonder if we will learn which one resulted in failure to deploy”

and do we know if it was a snowpulse or abs? pros and cons of different handles…

Tragic news indeed.
Jean Ribart (who skis with Alpine Experience) has a photo of the slide from, I think, the other side of the Isere - it’s on his Picasa public gallery web page:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jean.ribart/20102011ValPhotosOfTheDay#5560915368522545746
(or TinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/69l3kx5)

Thought you might be interested in a well-informed article from the Telegraph on yesterdays accident and reactions to it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/snowandski/france/val-disere/8254438/Val-dIsere-avalanche-is-it-safe-to-ski-off-piste.html

---
edited: fixed link

I have skied with the guide involved in this accident, as well as his wife, numerous times, and have even stayed with him and his family at their home in the Ardeche, and I can only say that he is a superlatove mountaineer and a cautious and conscientious guide. The track record for his company, Top Ski, speaks for itself...in thirty years of operation, not one casualty. We have skied this very same area, the Vallonet, many times, and in fact, have encountered the remains of a massive avalanche blocking the road out of this canyon from the other side. This slide was clearly both a monster and a fluke...an act of god, if you will. I mourn for the families of the victims, and also for the survivors, who must live with this for the rest of their lives. I am sure the guide will relive this moment over and over wondering if there was anything he could have done.

Radio Val d’Isere posted this video of the slide taken the next day: http://www.radiovaldisere.com/index.php

Seems to have released from the western ridge of the 2800m Pointe du Grand Vallon, the skiers must have been a bit west of the Pont St Charles.