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  1. #1
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    Big Slide near Tignes

    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/02...under-way.html

    Anyone have additional information about this?

    Vibes to all those involved.

  2. #2
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    Apparently a guided group of some kind set it off. 4 confirmed dead, sounds like maybe 2 found alive 3 still missing but other than 4 dead it's not very clear. Picture from here: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38954628

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    some info and a few more pictures on skipass and here. that wall thing is supposed to protect the buildings seen above from avalanches.

    Ich bitte dich nur, weck mich nicht.

  3. #3
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    That is a nasty terrain trap.

  4. #4
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    I'm in Val d'Isère for the school holidays. Saw the aftermath 2.5 hours after the slide. Scary and huge avalanche, very deep (on some spots the ground is scraped like in a spring side). This slope is very avy prone (it's named lavancher, ie avalanche), but usualy completely tracked out. There's indeed a man made "wall" at the bottom to protect the resort underneath. Thus a massive accumulation of compacted snow (6 to 8 meters according to the reports).
    I will not second guess the ski instructor guiding today, No real snow fall for 3 days, but strong southern winds and warm temperature. What do I know.
    There was some confusion regarding the number of people buried. Initial reports said a group of 7 plus a ski instructor from the ESF. It seems that actualy the group splited earlier and only 4 people were caught. A father, his 2 sons ( 15 and 18) and the instructor. They had their beacon on, and the ski patrol was just on top of the hill, but the avy was massive.
    This hit close to home. I have 2 kids about the same age. and my teenage (14) daughter spent last week doing precisely this: A week of off piste skiing in a group with a instructor, in the Espace Killy.
    That's so incredibly sad.
    "Typically euro, french in particular, in my opinion. It's the same skiing or climbing there. They are completely unfazed by their own assholeness. Like it's normal." - srsosbso

  5. #5
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    Dec 2010
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    Stomach turning.

  6. #6
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    Oct 2016
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    125
    I'm in Val D'Isere tomorrow and makes you think twice. There is definitely more avy prone terrain in the area than what was triggered... I try and always grab a guide out there but nothing is guaranteed. Tough to hear about and thoughts to all involved.

  7. #7
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    Sep 2005
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    Quote Originally Posted by philippeR View Post
    I'm in Val d'Isère for the school holidays. Saw the aftermath 2.5 hours after the slide. Scary and huge avalanche, very deep (on some spots the ground is scraped like in a spring side). This slope is very avy prone (it's named lavancher, ie avalanche), but usualy completely tracked out. There's indeed a man made "wall" at the bottom to protect the resort underneath. Thus a massive accumulation of compacted snow (6 to 8 meters according to the reports).
    I will not second guess the ski instructor guiding today, No real snow fall for 3 days, but strong southern winds and warm temperature. What do I know.
    There was some confusion regarding the number of people buried. Initial reports said a group of 7 plus a ski instructor from the ESF. It seems that actualy the group splited earlier and only 4 people were caught. A father, his 2 sons ( 15 and 18) and the instructor. They had their beacon on, and the ski patrol was just on top of the hill, but the avy was massive.
    This hit close to home. I have 2 kids about the same age. and my teenage (14) daughter spent last week doing precisely this: A week of off piste skiing in a group with a instructor, in the Espace Killy.
    That's so incredibly sad.
    Vibes and totally get this post. Was skiing her in Saas some of the same stuff. 3 days post storm, easy terrain, no worries stuff....and then this happened. Mother Nature.
    #1 goal this year......stay alive +
    DOWN SKIS

  8. #8
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    Jul 2005
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    Incredibly scary huge slide and terrain trap! Wow. I skied there in the late nineties when they had a ton of snow and huge avy's going off everywhere before we went over but things calmed down the week we were there. I remember being disappointed with how conservative our guide was but he knew what he was saving my fool ass from.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2017
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    1
    Have to agree that this is a problematic face. I've done 3 winters in Val/Tignes and I always stayed clear of this face. It's better doing the couloirs off the other side (Mickeys Ears). In the bad winter storm cycle of 98/99 it slide with a crown depth over 8ft, burying a group so deep, it took heavy machinery to find them weeks later.
    With conditions on the day, you have to look at the guides decision with a foehn wind and warmer temperatures, but the face was heavily skied with plenty of tracks already on it. Maybe that gave false security to the group.
    A sad day indeed!

  10. #10
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    I guess off-piste guiding in lean years is very competitive there, because I can't think of many other reasons why a guide would choose to guide on terrain that looks like that, over a terrain trap like that, with vulnerable members of the public at risk below you like that.

    Very sad for those affected.

    Quote Originally Posted by klar View Post
    Apparently a guided group of some kind set it off.
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    Life is not lift served.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2017
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    8
    Quote Originally Posted by neck beard View Post
    I guess off-piste guiding in lean years is very competitive there, because I can't think of many other reasons why a guide would choose to guide on terrain that looks like that, over a terrain trap like that.
    That man-made 'terrain trap' was built to protect the buildings in Le Lac. Sadly, in this accident, it buried the victims in meters of snow.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ski. Fish. Bike. View Post
    That man-made 'terrain trap' was built to protect the buildings in Le Lac. Sadly, in this accident, it buried the victims in meters of snow.
    A really unfortunate double edged sword. The structure/wall needed to be there. But so too perhaps did some other mitigating strategy to offset the increased risk from the resultant terrain trap.
    Life is not lift served.

  13. #13
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    Wow. Massive. Sad story.
    Quote Originally Posted by Ernest_Hemingway View Post
    I realize there is not much hope for a bullfighting forum. I understand that most of you would prefer to discuss the ingredients of jacket fabrics than the ingredients of a brave man. I know nothing of the former. But the latter is made of courage, and skill, and grace in the presence of the possibility of death. If someone could make a jacket of those three things it would no doubt be the most popular and prized item in all of your closets.

  14. #14
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    Click image for larger version. 

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    Last edited by philippeR; 02-18-2017 at 09:48 AM.
    "Typically euro, french in particular, in my opinion. It's the same skiing or climbing there. They are completely unfazed by their own assholeness. Like it's normal." - srsosbso

  15. #15
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    Ha! I have that little book.

    ...Find your way through the top of some avalanche fences to ski an adjacent avalanche start zone that should have avalanche fences but doesn't...
    Life is not lift served.

  16. #16
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    Oct 2011
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    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/03...atalities.html

    Another slide....damn not good...but lucky no fatalities.

  17. #17
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    4 dead in austria today, 1 body recovered from 12m depth. fucked up season.
    http://tirol.orf.at/news/stories/2831196/

    Ich bitte dich nur, weck mich nicht.

  18. #18
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    12 METERS - krikey
    . . .

  19. #19
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    yeah. danger level low to moderate. swiss group of 8, reportedly with fully certified guide. clients all over 60y/old. local person not part of the group did two laps on it just before the group skied and triggered it. some more info here in german http://lawinenwarndienst.blogspot.co...rubenkopf.html

    I've had a lot of really, really good days on that mountain and have skied it plenty of times on moderate days (in wind/storm slab type situations, as far as I recall not in pwl "moderate" conditions). anyway, this is a lot closer to home than feels comfortable.
    Ich bitte dich nur, weck mich nicht.

  20. #20
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    Avalanche risk level between 1 and 2... Shit. They did everything by the book. So sad.

    Same face, last year, video via Skipass. Four skiers caught from a group of 8, skinning uphill. No casualties.



    Skipass says it's dangerous face, with a bad history. Is that true ?
    "Typically euro, french in particular, in my opinion. It's the same skiing or climbing there. They are completely unfazed by their own assholeness. Like it's normal." - srsosbso

  21. #21
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    Well, what isn't a dangerous face? To my knowledge there was one previous fatality there several years ago (edit: I checked, it was in 2005). It is not more or less dangerous than the same kind of terrain elsewhere. It's a large, relatively open face, the terrain rolls here and there and you have many smaller features kind of dividing the main face into logical lines but not separating it into really independent parts. Pitch is between 30 and 35 for the most part, up to 40° in a few spots. They did not trigger it in a particularly steep section. The whole thing is by no means an "extreme" undertaking and it seems the affected group was on the most conservative route there is on it.

    The slide last year happened on a day with considerable danger and the general situation that led to that day's danger rating made it far more obvious that you wouldn't want to be on this slope. It was so sketchy that someone was filming them before anything even happened, anticipating that something would happen. This time nobody was expecting it to go like that. We have been having a couple of winters with a persistent weak layer problem of a level of seriousness that a lot of people (me included) are not used to.
    Last edited by klar; 03-16-2017 at 02:43 PM.
    Ich bitte dich nur, weck mich nicht.

  22. #22
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    Tanks for the perspective. A freak winter indeed.
    "Typically euro, french in particular, in my opinion. It's the same skiing or climbing there. They are completely unfazed by their own assholeness. Like it's normal." - srsosbso

  23. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by steezybomber View Post
    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/03...atalities.html

    Another slide....damn not good...but lucky no fatalities.
    Video.
    "Typically euro, french in particular, in my opinion. It's the same skiing or climbing there. They are completely unfazed by their own assholeness. Like it's normal." - srsosbso

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