Multiple Avalanches kill 8 in Switzerland

Dave Mac wrote:

admin wrote:Dave, I suspect David means 100 metres by 50 metres x50cm - or 2500 cubic metres. 8)

Dozy me.

Dave Mac wrote:Given a very low coefficient of friction exiting in a hoar layer, and taking into account the force from a snowboarder would not be a static, but a dynamic force, then you might expect avalanche conditions.

ise wrote:

Admin wrote:
Be careful out there...

...heavy snowfall in recent days have prompted officials to warn of a heightened avalanche risk in the Swiss Alps.

These warnings are going on deaf ears, people on holiday have some bizarre ideas about why and where avalanches occur and how and why snow is unstable.









This slide is at the top of the Orxival drag lift in Grimentz, it's quite small and looks like it was triggered from above by two snowboarders who decided to take a couple of extra turns by walking a few metres up from the lift and then riding down. Neither were equiped, no transceivers, no probes or shovels.

The small slab that detached then hit the piste below, we just arrived as the pisteurs were probing the snow and were ready to assist but they were happy no one had been hit by the slide.

In the final shot you ought to be able to see how badly consolidated the snow is, there seems to be two distinct slabs both of which failed.

None of which is particularly worthy of comment apart from that at the same time as the piste security are probing the snow people are climbing up on the ridge above them and looking over the cornice at the top to the pisteurs below. Simultaneously, about 150m behind us skiers without any equipment are skiing into the Abondance itinerary which was clearly closed. In some bizarre and potentially lethal parody of safe skiing one particular group ski the slope one at time before regrouping below it, the spot they picked would be to within a meter or two the maximally exposed position in the bowl and slides on any the slopes around it would have reached maximum depth exactly where they were stood.

And all day we saw the exact same thing, skiers and boarders without any equipment at all on slopes that were extremely dangerous, moving in groups from 2 or 3 to 7 or 8 only a few meters apart, stopping for a chat in positions of extreme danger or terrain traps.