Snow Cracks in the Central Zone of Chile: “This is a situation that should not be overlooked”
From Avalancha Sport
One of the postcards that alarmed all lovers of the mountain were the cracks that appeared in some sectors of the central zone of Chile where users in social networks recorded this event that can cause an avalanche.
Snow Cracks in the Central Zone of Chile: “This is a situation that should not be overlooked”. Photo: Avalancha Sport.
In this context and after this situation, Avalancha Sport spoke with Diego Pizarro, Mountain Risks Specialist and Instructor of snow and avalanches of the National Association of French Snow Studies (ANENA), who said that this phenomenon is not unusual at the beginnings of the season.
“My impression is very likely that this happened because there was an intense rainfall with little wind and very low temperatures during that period,” he began.
NATURAL HAZARDS : Camping in Switzerland carries certain risks
From Swissinfo.ch
I’ve found this post on Swissinfo.ch about Switzerland, but this applies to all mountainous areas all over the world really.
It states that about one in three campsites in Switzerland located in or near a risk zone along rivers, lakes or in avalanche regions, are in danger. This was found in an in-depth analysis by the Sonntags Zeintug and Le Matin Dimanche newspapers.
Photo: SB VonLanthen. Unsplash. NATURAL HAZARDS : Camping in Switzerland carries certain risks.
There are 444 campsites across the country of which some are open all year round. People living in these zones during the winter or bad weather spells with high waters could be killed.
I have been last year trekking with my family in Courmayeur during a week when it was raining a lot every afternoon – one day we’ve been up the mountain and we made it down and to the multi-sports enclosed centre when it started raining, and the next day, we’ve heard that just up the road a bit, in Val Veny, there was a massive mudslide as the rivers got really full with lots of rain in a short period of time, and a couple had been wiped away in their car and perished. One has to respect these areas, as nature can turn very hard against one really quickly.
An expert skier killed by an avalanche in the Aiguilles rouges and a snowboarder died on the Alpes Maritimes.
A deadly avalanche occurred in the Aiguilles-rouges massif, Haute-Savoie, this Saturday, May 18, 2019. A 33-year-old skier, apparently very experienced, was found dead at 2500 meters altitude.
The Aiguille Rouges seen from Lac Blanc. An expert skier killed by an avalanche in the Aiguilles rouges and a snowboarder died on the Alpes Maritimes.
A skier of high level was killed Saturday, May 18, 2019 in the massif of Aiguilles rouges (Haute-Savoie). It was carried away, it seems, by an avalanche while it came down a corridor “rather steep”, one learned this Sunday near the platoon of gendarmerie of high mountain of Chamonix. He was climbing the North East couloir of Aiguille de Mesure (at 2812 meters) trying to descend the same way when the avalanche occurred. This skier was alone at the time of the avalanche.
The mountain rescue did a preliminary helicopter search and found an ice axe and a ski, before locating the victim, aged 33, partially under the snow 500 meters below at the foot of the needle of Praz-Torrent (2,573 m altitude).
Dangerous avalanche conditions are expected ahead of Arctic Man
From KTVA
Next week, hundreds of snowmobiles will descend upon the Hoodoo Mountains north of Paxson for the annual Arctic Man event, and avalanche forecasters want them to know that conditions are especially unpredictable this spring.
“The mountains are shedding.” warned Debra McGhan of the Alaska Avalanche Information Center. “It might be stable in the morning, but by afternoon things are letting go.”
Dangerous avalanche conditions are expected ahead of Arctic Man
On Saturday, two brothers were buried in an avalanche while riding not far from where Arctic Man takes place. No one was hurt, but it was a reminder of the dangers.
It’s a transitional year for Arctic Man, which will not be hosting its classic ski races this year. The unusual race has been held nearly every year since 1986, but interest has slowed. After 33 years, the popular Arctic Man Race of teams of two – a skier and a snowmobile, is ending. The race had the skier in each team, going down the mountain, being towed by the snowmobile uphill again and then skiing back down for a second time.
Avalanche kills two in the French Alps near Les 2 Alpes
From: AP – The Sun Herald and Le Dauphine –
French officials say two have died after an avalanche in the Alps near the Deux-Alpes ski resort.
St Christophe-en-Oisans. Photo: Quentin Lagache- Unsplash. Avalanche kills person in French Alps; another missing.
The police unit in charge of setting up the rescue operation and authorities in the Isere region said the avalanche struck late Tuesday morning.
The avalanche struck in on off-piste sector near the small town of Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans.
Update from Le Dauphine:
14 H 05 : The accident occurred outside the landscaped area of Les Deux-Alpes, on an area on the Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans side of La Toura, downstream and south of the Grand Creux breach. (2804 m). Côté Deux-Alpes (on the northern slope), several lifts lead to this sector of off-piste skiing: the chairlifts of Toura and Lac Noir.
Many rescuers are currently working alongside Civil Safety and FAS helicopters. A dog team from the CRS Alpes, two from the resort of Les Deux Alpes and a dog team from Huez are on site. A dozen police officers from the CRS Alpes, trackers and station staff are involved in the research.
Meteo France, in its bulletin snow and avalanche, reports for Tuesday of a risk 3 (scored) on a scale of 5.
The operation of the Säntis suspension railway (Säntisbahn), from the Schwägalp to the Säntis, will be closed during the next months. The reason for this is the damage to the structure of the first ropeway support, which was affected by an avalanche.
For safety reasons, the operation of the Säntis suspension railway will be suspended until further notice. Neither guests nor employees are transported by the suspension railway. the reason for this is the damage in the lower part of the cable car support. Due to an avalanche decline in the period of Sunday, January 13 and Monday, January 14, the avalanche protection of the prop and the structural construction were affected.
It cannot be said yet how big the damage to the support and the construction is. One must, however, assume that the damage is substantial, and the repair work could take months. In the worst-case scenario, the support will even have to be completely replaced. A project team of experts is currently evaluating the damage and will plan how to proceed with the risk accessed correctly.
An avalanche affected the structure of the Säntis suspension railway
The recent avalanche occurred at the time when the rescue and clearing work of the previous avalanche of 10 January was discontinued on Schwägalp and the access of the whole area was locked for all people. The reason for the interruption of this work was the heavy snowfall associated with the increased avalanche danger. Like the renewed event showed, the risk was correctly assessed by the professionals. Between the first avalanche event and the one that damaged the prop there was a snowfall of 1.5 meters of fresh snow. This strong snowfall, in combination with high wind in the peaks may have led to a renewed avalanche.
This new avalanche had less snow mass displaced than the first avalanche event. Accordingly, the snow also did not penetrate to the Schwägalp, but came to standstill before.
Due to this recent event, it is assumed that the suspension railway operation Säntis will stop for months. For the employees of the Säntis, the decision of the suspension railway has no consequences, neither financially nor with respect to their employment.
What this means for the current renovation work of the summit restaurant on the Säntis cannot be assessed at this moment. The economic effects cannot be estimated yet. However, the most important thing is to give guests and employees the highest level of safety and security.
TSV: Two skiers extracted, ‘no additional victims’
From Taos News
Two skiers were critically injured in an avalanche on Thursday (Jan. 17) near Kachina Peak, the highest point at Taos Ski Valley ski resort.
According to a press release from the resort, an “inbounds avalanche” occurred in chute three on Kachina Peak just before noon, burying two men, who have not yet been identified.
Rescuers searching the snow extracted the men just before 1 p.m. and performed CPR on them before rushing them to the base of the resort.
Avalanche buries two near Kachina Peak.
According to a report heard on Taos Central Dispatch before 3 p.m., a medic transporting one of the men in an ambulance to Holy Cross Hospital in Taos said she had “one male trauma patient,” for whom she had established an IV and an intubator, a medical device that helps a person breath when they are unconscious.
Taos County Emergency Services Chief Chris Medina said the other man was also in critical condition and was being flown by helicopter to University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque.
According to a press release from the ski resort, the search for others who might have been buried was called off after 2 p.m., when rescuers determined there to be “no additional victims.”
Two ski patrollers died on Sunday in the ski resort in Morillon in the Haute Savoie region of France while setting avalanche control charges before the resort opened to the public. These avalanche-control charges accidentally went off, killing them. Police are investigating the cause of this, which is rare. Ski patrollers set up controlled explosions before the slopes open to mitigate the risk of larger avalanches. You can read my previous interview to Coco Torres, former Head of Operations at Valle de Las Leñas in Argentina, about how patrollers control avalanches in this high-avalanche prone valley.
The accident took place at an altitude of 1,800 metres (6,000 feet). Forecasters at Meteo France warned of high avalanche risks in the Savoie and Hatue-Savoie regions following overnight snowfalls. The risk of avalanches was at 4 out of 5.
Two ski patrollers died in Morillon setting avalanche control charges.
These fatalities bring the number of weather-related deaths in Europe this month to at least 26, with heavy snow blanketing the Balkans and part of the Alps.
Two Bulgarian snowboarders were killed by an avalanche in the Pirin Mountains on Friday. The Bulgarian Red Cross said that the pair ignored the warnings and weather alerts and triggered the avalanche.
A 48-year old driver of a snow plough died in Germany this past Friday after his vehicle plunged into an icy river.
Three German Skiers got killed in an avalanche near the Austrian resort of Lech, the fourth skier is missing. The group was ski touring at the time.
The dead men were from the Upper Swabia area of southwestern Germany. They were found around 11 PM local time after one of their wives alerted that they were missing. They were aged 57, 36 and 32. The fourth missing person, also from southern Germany was 28.
Three German Skiers got killed in an Avalanche near the Austrian resort of Lech, fourth is missing. Photo: Reuters.
The search for this fourth person has halted due to heavy avalanche risk.
Police in the Vorarlberg province has said they have located the people through mobile phone tracking near the Lanzeg Zug slope – one of the steepest in the world.
As per the Associated Press, weather-related deaths in parts of Europe this month account to at least 24.
Austria has been hit by large snowfalls this past week, and the avalanche warning levels have gone up while local roads have been cut. The warning level above 2,000 meters (6,560 feet) was on Saturday on a scale of 3 of 5. The slope has been closed due to avalanche danger.
Over the past 20 years, there has been an average of 100 reported avalanches a year where people were involved. On average, 23 people die in avalanches every year, the majority (+90%) in open mountainous areas where people were off-piste skiing, snowboarding, or backcountry touring on skis or snowshoes.
In controlled areas (roads, railways, communities and secured ski runs) the 15-year annual average number of victims dropped from 15 at the end of the 1940s to less than one in 2010. The last time anyone died in a building hit by an avalanche was in 1999.
Avalanche crashes into hotel in eastern Switzerland. What is the real risk from avalanches?
Avalanches such as the one that hit the Hotel Säntis in Schwägalp are rare.
Bruno Vattioni, director of the Säntis lift company, said on Friday “an avalanche of this size is not predictable”. Locals have not experienced anything like it in the 84 years’ existence of the Säntis cable car. Normally, the southern face of the Säntis, the other side of the peak, is the more dangerous.
How are avalanches normally monitored?
Since 1945, the national avalanche warning service, run by the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) in Davos, produces a twice-daily national avalanche bulletinusing data gathered by 200 people trained to do the job and 170 automatic measuring stations dotted across the Swiss Alps. This information is shared and used by the police, cantons, communes, mountain resorts, rescue services and other winter professionals across the country.
Are they normally successful at monitoring and protecting against avalanches?
The density of the avalanche warning network and the level of training and expertise is unique to Switzerland. But it cannot catch every avalanche, as SLF avalanche forecaster Frank Techel explained to swissinfo.ch.
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