Yet More Avalanche Deaths in the Alps
As resorts open more terrain and lower the risk then it is expected there will be further fatalities.
A major search operation was underway on Friday evening following an avalanche in St Anton in the Tirol in Austria.
It remains unclear if any was injured.
Several helicopters are supporting the search for potentially buried skiers and snowboarders.
We will bring you further details on PlanetSKI as we receive them.
On Wednesday three Dutch people were caught in an avalanche in Fiss, also in the Tirol.
A 71-year-old man died in a 50m avalanche.
His 41-year-old son and a 34-year-old man survived.
The younger two were equipped with avalanche transceivers, but the man who died was not wearing one.
His body was found an hour after the accident by an avalanche dog.
The Austrian National Emergency Centre recorded over 30 avalanches on Wednesday.
Two Germans, a snowboarder and a skier, were also killed in Austria.
The previous day in Switzerland a 49-year-old man was killed by an avalanche on Tuesday afternoon while skiing with his 15-year-old son in the canton of Graubünden, eastern Switzerland.
The avalanche risk at the time was Level 4 – High.
The two were skiing away from the marked pistes in Parsonz.
It was the second avalanche death in Graubünden in the space of a week.
On Sunday afternoon, a 38-year-old snowboarder died in the Parsenn area in Davos.
Avalanche in Davos.Image c/o Graubunden Cantonal Police.
On Monday, another snowboarder was rescued in Davos.
A total of 13 people have died in avalanches in Switzerland this winter, according to WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research.
Across Europe the figure is 95 according to European Avalanche Warning Services.
The annual average is about 100 deaths a winter and it is now just into the second half of the season.
Last winter there were 70 deaths, and 87 in 2023-24.
In the 2020-21 season 131 people died and in 2017-18 the figure was 147.
In the past seven days three British skiers have died.
The high number of incidents is caused by a series of heavy storms with snow falling on an unstable snowpack where the bonding is very weak.
New research from Swiss scientists suggest that avalanches are starting faster than previously thought with cracks accelerating across the slopes quickly.
Previously, it was assumed that such cracks propagate at speeds of between 20Â and 80Â metres per second.
The new research concludes the propagation speed increased from 50Â to 130Â metres per second.
SLF researchers have now demonstrated that cracks propagate faster than expected, even exceeding the previously assumed theoretical boundaries for this process in snow.
This then causes a wide area of a slope to slide.
We have posted the full details here:
This is fueled by the wreckless behaviour of some skiers and snowboarders who are not heeding the warnings.
Here at PlanetSKI we wouldn’t dream of skiing on a slope over 30 degrees in steepness, or one that is threatened by a slope above that is over 30 degrees at present when the avalanche risk is so high.
Preferably keep to the trees and ideally established ones that indicate they have not been swept away by an avalanche in recent years.
Above all have the correct safety equipment and know how to use it.
Obey all the rules, and make all judgements on safety grounds, not personal enjoyment or bragging rights.
The enjoyment comes once the correct safety decisions are made.
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