A group with a ski instructor were hit by an avalanche while skiing off-piste yesterday in Val d’Isère. The accident occurred close to the open ski runs in the Manchet sector. The group were at 2700 meters altitude.
One of the group was buried in the slide and was located using his avalanche transceiver. He was in a state of hypothermia and was taken to hospital. The accident happened late in the afternoon. The Alpine Experience website reported temperatures of 10 to 12C at the time saying they believed that snow collapsed on a layer of 40cm of depth hoar triggering the slide. The instructor is not part of the Alpine Experience team but belongs to another ski school in Val d’Isère.
This snow profile is from the Vanoise for today showing the facetted and depth hoar layer that was possibly responsible for yesterday’s avalanche in the Manchet. There is also a fairly strong temperature gradient at the altitude which may lead to some more facetted snow growth.
This graphic is from the CEN and is no doubt why they are keeping the risk in the Savoie at considerable at this altitude.
Posted by
davidof on Thursday, 11 January, 2007 at 02:32 PM
Just to clarify, the guided group was NOT with Alpine Experience but with an instructor from another Val D’Isère ski school, the information referred to was from Wayne’s daily update on our website http://www.alpineexperience.com under “news”. Andreas
Posted by on Friday, 12 January, 2007 at 10:05 PM
Thanks for highlighting that Andreas, the article is confusing and I will go back and edit it.
Posted by
davidof on Sunday, 14 January, 2007 at 05:27 PM
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