Sorry not been out on the snow today, I have a heavy chest cold (or man ‘flu as my wife calls it)
A snow shoer who has been missing in the Bauges near Doucy since Saturday has been found dead by the rescue services. Obviously a victim of an avalanche sometime on Saturday. Her boss contacted her family when she failed to turn up for work on Monday morning. A major search operation was put in place and backcountry enthusiasts were asked if they had seen the victim at the week-end.
An avalanche expert in Austria has been killed by a slide, from Google Translate (note snow cannot weigh 2.5 tonnes / meter m3)
In an inspection tour of the local avalanche warning Commission in Obertauern (in the Salzburg district Pongau) today, Wednesday, at 9.25 clock has been an avalanche expert from Tamsweg himself swept up in a snow board and killed.
The very experienced 44-year-old was determined with a colleague on skis in an open area in the Seekarspitzbahn at a board of commission, if the slopes away from the slopes would have to lift it, and whether facilities are locked. Shortly before the end of this safety inspection, he joined himself off a slab.
“Both men are very experienced people,” said the head of the official Salzburg avalanche warning service and disaster adviser to the country, Norbert Altenhofer. The victim was 25 years employed by the lifts and, since 2007, Deputy Chairman of the Sub-Commission avalanches.
Paid particular attention to two men in the elevator company in its risk assessment on those near-piste slopes, which are used most frequently by freeriding. Especially because for the course of the day, an increase of the avalanche warning level of 2 was announced on 3. As is evident from the police report, is when driving one of these links in the so-called trough solved a 50-meter wide slab avalanche experts and 200 yards wide swept into the valley. “This is no fault of the employee, but a form of residual risk,” said Altenhofer.
Extremely wet and heavy snow
The slab avalanche buried the 44-year-old trail boss of the elevator company about five feet deep. “The extremely wet snow weighs at these temperatures around 2.5 tonnes per cubic meter,” said Heinz Lammerding of the district administration Tamsweg.
Several skiers, who had observed the accident, and the 42-year-old colleague of the victim raised the alarm. All available forces of the elevator operator went with avalanche transceivers and probes to the scene and were able to Tamsweg, which was equipped with an avalanche beep, probe and shovel, after 15 to 20 minutes to locate and recover a further ten minutes. They could help the man but just as the mountain rescue Obertauern, the Alpine police and the ambulance.
Resuscitation attempts were unsuccessful
The person responsible for the safety of the slopes avalanche expert was rescued unconscious from the wet snow. Even this relatively short period was too long - all resuscitation attempts by emergency doctor were unsuccessful, the victim died on the spot. “He has for the safety of the skiers left their lives,” said Lammer. The man leaves behind two children.
http://www.nachrichten.at/nachrichten/chronik/art58,829670
and a full depth avalanche at les Diablerets
http://www.rts.ch/info/suisse/3821002-une-avalanche-aurait-emporte-2-a-3-personnes-aux-diablerets.html
Several skiers were swept away by an avalanche Wednesday afternoon at Les Diablerets (VD). The cast went off at the head Meilleret in an area off-piste around 15:00, said a spokesman for the Vaud cantonal police.
The police were waiting confirmation of the presence of two persons under the snow slide. REGA and a relief column were incurred for research. Thirty rescuers have been mobilized. Casting, which measures some seventy feet wide, slid down the road for 200 meters. It has not affected the ski slopes.