Avalanche in Tignes 5th December 2012

Details in Le Dauphine in French:

http://www.ledauphine.com/savoie/2012/12/05/tignes-une-avalanche-emporte-trois-skieurs

2 skiers buried near the Aeroski, another skier not buried. Rescue search carried out by piste patrol and resort staff. No helicopter rescue because of bad weather. 1 skier was not breathing but was revived and has been taken to hospital in Grenoble.

(Edited to account for my lousy French comprehension) :oops:

I could see something was going on on the webcam about noon today.

That explains it - fingers crossed for the injured.

I feel sorry for the rescue teams who have to turn out onto unstable slopes to dig folks out.

Just Copied this from the Tignes web page

The two skiers caught in the slide are rumoured to be in their 20's and one of the pair is seriously injured. Initial fears that a third person may have been caught in the avalanche turned out to be false. Reports suggest that neither of the skiers appear to have been wearing avalanche transceivers.

Pisteurs from the resort were at the scene to assist in the rescue operation but the CRS Rescue helicopter was unable to fly due to the poor weather conditions and limited visibility.

Yesterday Meteo France had warned of a high avalanche risk in the Alps due to significant and intense snowfalls in the area combined with strong winds at altitude. The Tarentaise area has seen over a meter of snow with drifting over the last 5 days and the avalanche danger for Wednesday was rated at Level 4.

From PlanetSki

Two people were caught this morning while skiing off piste. They were both rescued in a huge search operation. One is seriously injured and the other is recovering at home. They were not wearing transceivers.

The accident happened late morning under the Aeroski lift that goes from Tignes Le Lac in the north face of the Tovier sector.

They were reported to be in an area that had been closed by the authorities but this has not been confirmed.

The risk of avalanche was 4 on a scale of 5 and people had been warned to be extra careful.

The identities of the victims have not been released but it is understood they are in their 20s and the person seriously injured is female.

We have been informed by the authorities that both the people involved are French.

At one point it was feared a third person was buried.

"Two persons were caught in an avalanche this morning at 11:29 am. The first one had been found quickly, just unconscious, and is now well and at home. The second one is most seriously injured and is actually on her way to the hospital of Grenoble. The ski patrols from Tignes and Val d'Isère and the skiing instructors from Tignes were all on the spot to find them as fast as they can but the victims were not equipped with detectors," said a statement we have been sent by the tourist office.

Neither of the people involved was wearing a transceiver.

The ski patrol, local ski instructors and passers-by helped in the search operation. Rescue teams were called over from neighbouring Val d'Isere.

Helicopters were unable to fly due to poor visibility and strong winds.

It is not clear for how long or how deep the injured person was buried.

The resort has seen over a metre of snow in the past few days accompanied by high winds. Many slopes in the area have been closed due to the danger of avalanches.

That is really awful, but it's amazing how stupid people can be sometimes :shock:

I was looking just this morning at how many pistes were open in Tignes and most of them were shut and they said there was a high avalanche risk. I posted about this on our group holiday thread.

I hope they are OK and they are more careful in future about where and when they ski. I also hope they have insurance that will cover them for being off-piste in conditions like they had this morning - or else they will have a large bill to pay!

AllyG wrote:That is really awful, but it's amazing how stupid people can be sometimes :shock:

I was looking just this morning at how many pistes were open in Tignes and most of them were shut and they said there was a high avalanche risk. I posted about this on our group holiday thread.

I hope they are OK and they are more careful in future about where and when they ski. I also hope they have insurance that will cover them for being off-piste in conditions like they had this morning - or else they will have a large bill to pay!

Insurers will probably point to the small print. The bit that says no cover for exposing yourself to "needless peril" or similar.

Some rumours that they were UCPA trainee Instructors, who had been cleared by their Trainer to ski that slope, at that time. No doubt more details will emerge in the coming days.

I read earlier today this was a UCPA group, and the instructor gave the go ahead.
No avy gear, and a level 4.
Mixed messages about if the second lady survived, she had a cardiac arrest, then the pulse started beating. Later heard that she hadn't made it. There is always a problem with people reading half a story, and adding their own bits.