J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by SwingBeep

Pavelski, Grimentz is in Switzerland not France.

Unique and brand new (it only opened yesterday) is the Stanserhorn 'CabriO' cable car. The first open topped double decked cable car, where the passengers ride above the cables.







sorry about the yodelling

http://www.stanserhorn.ch/de/bahn/cabrio/

And your far too young to have ridden on a funicular sledge.



No special skills required, just get in and sit down.

I don't think there are very many basket lifts left. The idea is to step elegantly into the basket (takes a bit of practice) when the attendant closes the gate don't forget to say "Grazia"

steverandomno wrote: Will the lift ever be open?

I think there's a good chance that it will be built, but it might take a while, things move very slowly in Italy. The plan is to build a lift from St Jacques at the head of the Ayas valley to the existing lifts around Cime Bianche above Valtournenche. The link will be less exposed than some of the others, so it shouldn't be as prone to closure due to high winds. They aren't planning any new pistes so there shouldn't be too much trouble getting it past the environmentalists. There is an off piste route from the Colle Cime Bianche down to St Jacques .

Linking Cervinia / Valtournenche to the Monterosa area makes a lot of sense as it will make the combined area more attractive, lots of people complain that the skiing in Cervinia is a bit tame. I don't know how much Zermatt and Alagna will benefit as they are at the ends of the area, being part of the largest linked skiing area will be good for marketing and Zermatt will get some extra cash from the international ski pass pot.

The feasibility study is going to cost 400,000 euro, of which Zermatt is contributing 32,000, the total cost of the project is estimated at 30-35 million. This is much less than it would cost to link Zermatt to Saas Fee or Zinal.

Pricing will probably be one of the issues examined in the study. The Italians should be able to come up with a competitive price for their side. The international pass might not be so easy to price, there must be a limit to what even Zermatt can charge.

pavelski wrote: You did forget the worst "problem" with such lifts. One skier doing ZIG ZAG out of tracks can easily de-rail tension/lift wire off rollers. Two hours of waiting.

Good point Pavalski, drag lifts are fitted with devices to prevent the cable coming off, but, they don't always work. I have seen people get their lift pass confiscated for 'slaloming' on drag lifts.

On the 11. May the mayors of Ayas (Champoluc), Gressoney, Valtournenche and Zermatt agreed to finance a feasibility study for a lift that would link St Jacques to Valtournenche. This would link the Monterosa ski area to Zermatt and Cervinia, giving access to 650km of pistes, 50km more than the 3 valleys. The results should be known by the end of the year.

Thanks for the heads up regarding lost passports, we are going to Corsica for our summer hols this year, if we loose a passport I would have to go to Marseille to get a replacement.

The AA and Drakefield Insurance Services are both subsidiaries of Acromas Holdings http://www.acromas.com/

andymol2 wrote: And the public good of the prosecution was?

I don't know if its part of an Austrian public prosecutor's remit to take this into account but, the general public are not keen on rescuers being put at what they see as unnecessary risk and an increasing number want action taken against negligent mountaineers and skiers.

Tragic error of judgement on behalf of both of them but prosecuting won't have helped either of them or their families one jot.

There were several errors:
1. They didn't read the avalanche bulletin.
2. They weren't using their transceivers (his decision).
3. He set off before she had reached a point of safety.

Not familiar with Austrian law but surely this would have been dealt with more appropriately by their equivalent of an inquest.

AFAIK the UK and Ireland are the only countries in Europe that hold inquests. In other European countries the public prosecutors investigate suspicious deaths. They are required to investigate the incriminating and exculpating circumstances with equal care.

Prosecution might have been more appropriate if they had injured others skiing on piste beneath them.

I don't see what difference it makes.

John987 wrote: In Austria is the medical doctor the same as a pathologist, find it strange they medical field disagreeing in court

I found another article that gives some further information about the doctors roles and the official cause of death.

The doctor called by the prosecution was a "Sprengelarzt" (the literal translation is district doctor) they seem to have responsibilities similar to those of a medical officer in the UK, controlling epidemics etc. They are also responsible for the determination of cause of death and the issuing of death certificates. The actual determination is carried out by a "Totenbeschauarzt" literally a doctor who examines the dead, if they are uncertain about the cause of death they will request an autopsy. In this case an autopsy wasn't carried out. The doctors called by the defence were emergency doctors (probably the ones involved in the rescue) they might not have been qualified to determine cause of death, which might be why their opinion that a broken neck was the cause of death was rejected by both courts. So the official cause of death was recorded as asphyxiation. Asphyxiation is the cause of death in about 85% of avalanche fatalities.

According to Dr. Stefan Beulke a lawyer (he is also a mountain guide and ski instructor) who specialises in mountaineering and skiing accidents, the concept of collective responsibility is a theoretical ideal. In practice there is nearly always an actual or de facto leader. This guy admitted in court that it was his decision not to use their transceivers, he didn't say we discussed it and we decided they weren't necessary. This decision reduced his wife's chances of survival (if she did die of asphyxiation) to virtually nil, as far as I can see that was negligent. If they had been using their transceivers I doubt that he would have even been charged.

Its becoming increasingly clear that the mountains are no longer out of reach of the law, up until recently these accidents weren't thoroughly investigated, there simply wasn't enough manpower. The Austrians now have specially trained police whose primary function is to help with mountain rescues and carry out follow up investigations.