It's a bad year for avalanches - be careful!

Thanks to bandit for pointing us at a good, but sobering, round-up of the season-to-date from the view of avalanche risk.

As you'll be aware, if you've been taking any notice at all of our snow forecasts and reports, the snow this winter came late - and when it arrived it did so in substantial quantities. So those big falls fell on thin to non-existent bases (off piste), resulting in instabilities and poorly bonded layers deep in the snow pack.

Sadly, but inevitably, this has meant that the winter is likely to be one of the worst for a while for avalanche fatalities. Deaths directly due to avalanches now total at least 75 in Europe to date, compared with around 80 for the whole of last season.

Remember - the majority of fatal avalanches have been triggered by their victims.

This article on wepowder gives you the low-down - http://wepowder.com/weblog/5806/Winter-14-15-75-fatalities-due-to-avalanches-so-far.

WePowder wrote:trust us, it is very dangerous and a layman simply won't recognize the dangers. The main problems can be found deep in the snow cover and even an expert can not recognize the problems without a helping hand.

WePowder wrote:With as many as 24 victims France has the dubious honor of being number one. Particularly the Department of the Hautes Alpes (with ski resorts like Serre Chevalier, Risoul, and the famous tourski region the Queyras) has a hard time with as many as 11 fatalities so far. Number 2 is Switzerland with 20 victims, followed by Italy (15) and Austria (14). Striking this winter are the two victims in the German Black Forest. Something you normally never see over there.

If you want to ski off-piste, make sure you understand the risks, do everything you can to mitigate them, and remember there's no such thing as "a little bit off-piste"...


Photo from WePowder

A grim picture of the risks associated with skiing. Can somebody please clarify what we are looking at in the photo? Has the top layer in the smooth section avalanched?

Wanderer wrote:Has the top layer in the smooth section avalanched?

Yes.

The smooth bit will be where two layers (probably two separate snowfalls) were weakly bonded; everything above that has slid. The zig-zag wall at the top is the crown wall or fracture line, where you can see roughly how deep the slab was.

Whatever the cause or outcome, that's a lot of snow and you can see how close it is to the piste above (and how easily accessible it is). You can also see how well skied it was before it slid... just because the guy in front of you got down a slope, doesn't mean you will!

Today - another avalanche in Switzerland kills three walkers and badly injures another:

http://www.lenouvelliste.ch/fr/valais/martigny/3-personnes-decedees-dans-l-avalanche-au-grand-st-bernard-494-1418891

The avalanche danger level was set to '2' but the commmentary on this and other accidents is that whatever the level is generally, specific conditions can be very dangerous, even on well-trod and commonly-used tracks and routes.

All the victims were equiped with suitable detectors etc., but weather conditions delayed recovery.

"weather conditions delayed recovery". Remember that you have ~15min to dig someone out assuming that they have not received fatal injuries from avalanche itself. Group is therefore relying heavily on self rescue with outside assistance typically being a body recovery exercise. Seems that this year a lot of groups have been all caught together, with the wind slab conditions it seems that you really need to keep 50M+ apart when traversing slopes and really consider where to stop.

Interesting yesterday was at AL 2 in Balme but right after start of chair you could see a clear fracture. Anywhere that is not skied regularly will likely have some sort of wind slab which is poorly bonded to snow layer below or even ground itself this year.

One of the guys I am sharing a flat with was caught in avalanche about three weeks ago - after the last big snowfall. It was in couloir so not too wide and not deep, but still he was dragged for about 500m. Walked away with a few bruises and strained muscle on his back but could be much worse - he was lucky not to be taken over rocks.