Sign up to receive this in your email
(No more than once daily, often less depending on the amount of new news.)

Archive Index - All Editions

Avalanche buries three in Swiss avalanche course

An avalanche briefly buried three people out of forty participating in an avalanche course in the Swiss Alps on Dec. 7, Rega rescue services said. The participants had split into several smaller groups to carry out exercises on Oberalp Pass in eastern Switzerland when the 30-meter-wide slab released, Rega said.

Helicopter crews were called in to help with the rescue, but others in the group managed to dig the three out within 10 minutes before the helicopters arrived, it said. "They were in good condition, given the circumstances," Rega said, adding that one had been flown to a nearby hospital for a check.

"Practice became serious," Rega said in a statement.
More ... (Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey)

Man partially buried in CO avalanche has significant injuries

An avalanche on Mines Peak, east of Berthoud Pass, partially buried and injured a backcountry skier Tuesday, Dec. 3, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. The male skier was able to self-rescue from the avalanche debris but sustained significant injuries, according to Grand County Search and Rescue. The man’s injuries prevented him from skiing out of the area, and first responders located him using GPS coordinates from his cellphone, according to a news release from Search and Rescue. Responders treated the skier for his injuries, including mild hypothermia. Emergency responders used a toboggan and rope system to transport the skier back to U.S. Highway 40. From there, he was transferred to the care of Grand County EMS.
More ... (Summit Daily)

'Largest avalanche in our recent history' - Steamboat Resort, CO

From November 25 to November 27, a major snowstorm hit Steamboat Resort in northwest Colorado, with double-digit snow totals. All of this fresh snow stressed the existing snowpack and resulted in a natural avalanche that was called the resort's 'largest avalanche slide in recent history.' The slide took place in an upper area of the mountain that's home to two black diamond (Crowtrack and The Ridge) and two double black diamond (Chute 1 and Chute 2) runs. No one was reported to be injured in the slide, with this part of the mountain currently closed. "The is the largest slab avalanche we've seen at Steamboat in almost two decades," said ski patroller Matt Harstel.
More ... (Denver Gazette)

2010 Helitrax Avalanche - "Shaken But Not Stirred"

This article from 2010 (updated in 2015) showed up in our news scan for some reason. It's an interesting article and is being included despite the article being dated. Some conclusions and observations may never be dated.

On Friday, January 8, 2010, Helitrax dropped a group of skiers off on the shoulder of Pilot Knob for a run into Waterfall Canyon. It was a placid day: blue sky, very little wind. The powder was old and settled, wind-affected in places; it hadn’t snowed in a while. Long-time Ophirian Mark Rikkers was the guide. He decided, along with the other guides and the dispatcher, to ski Poster Pitch. His would be the first commercial group down that run this season. But it was not the first time it had been skied. In fact, earlier that morning, a cadre of “heli-hitchers” had dug a snow pit there, before themselves skiing down. Their pit revealed “moderate” weakness in the snowpack, a totally expectable, if typically ambiguous hazard rating for the San Juans in January.

Rikkers had his clients ski the first pitch one at a time. An Australian man stopped off to the side to take a picture of his wife skiing by. Hers was the eighth track marking the hill. Then, as she passed him, 30 feet away, the snow above and all around the man fractured to the ground. He was never buried or under the snow. He lost both skis, but he ended up on top. In classic Aussi good humor, he declared himself “shaken but not stirred.”

Senior guide Speed Miller, who has been out on skis almost every winter day these last 28 years, had never seen an avalanche that high on the pitch before. The slope angle at the fracture line was only 29 degrees. Steep enough to slide, obviously, but significantly shallower than the “most common” failure angle of 38 degrees. The next day they flew up to do a fracture-line profile on the slide. They also threw 24 three-pound explosives into likely start zones with no results whatsoever.
More ... (Telluride News)