With big snow comes big risk

[dbostedo]

There’s a lesson ^there - she wasn’t the first person to hit that drop.

What's the lesson?

 

[pais alto]

What's the lesson?

That because you see tracks on a slope doesn’t mean it’s safe.

 

[François Pugh]

The only thing that bugs me about avy deaths is when avy danger is known to be high and folks are out there knowingly risking there lives skiing 30 to 60 degree slopes, snowmobiling or mountain climbing. As far as I am concerned it is their call though.

 

[VickiK]

The report of the 3/19/19 snowboarder death in the Mammoth backcountry ended with the caution "have a plan, ride with a partner, know your route and carry proper equipment."

In this man's case, he had a plan (ride Hole in Wall), he may or may not have had the right equipment (helmet?), he did not have a partner (many do ski/ride solo), but knowing the route would have been the only thing that would've let him avoid his death.

 

[Primoz]

There’s a lesson ^there - she wasn’t the first person to hit that drop.

There's another lesson... There's no 100% safe terrain. With FWT you have guides on face for weeks before event. They check and recheck terrain and snow over and over again before giving green light, and when they do give green light for competition to go, they are almost 100% sure it's safe. Yet it can still happen. This one of Kuzma wasn't first such incident and it won't be last either.

The only thing that bugs me about avy deaths is when avy danger is known to be high and folks are out there knowingly risking there lives skiing 30 to 60 degree slopes, snowmobiling or mountain climbing. As far as I am concerned it is their call though.

As far as I'm concerned, it's ALWAYS our call. Noone else then we ourself can be responsible for our own safety and our own decisions. Even in US skiing inbound, it's on the end only your own responsibility to ski that terrain and as far as I'm concerned, it's only your own responsibility if something happens. Sure you can go and sue ski resort after that, if you are lucky enough to stay alive, but that's secondary in my mind, as staying alive is primary objective. And that's always only in your hands.
But for first part... I wouldn't judge so easily. I admit without any problem, that I'm there skiing stuff when avi danger are at 3 or even 4 (this winter even when it was 5). Like it or not, most of time best conditions are when avi danger is high(er). It takes some planning and some knowledge to be out that time, but realistically, at least around here, except for spring, it's hardly ever under 3. Do we stay inside all winter then? I guess safest thing would be, but then again, most of people die in bed, so inside is not all that safe either I also agree many people go out risk their life thinking it's pretty big chance nothing will happen. Personally I try to stay on safe side, and go out there, but go into avi terrain (regardless on danger) with some data and facts, not with mentality "well it's little chance something will go wrong, so let's try". For now it worked, but doesn't mean it's not just luck. On one side, when you know nothing is 100% safe, you can always say it's just luck that you didn't hit that 10, 5, 1, 0.1, or 0.0001% that would be on dangerous side.

 

[Rod9301]

There's another lesson... There's no 100% safe terrain. With FWT you have guides on face for weeks before event. They check and recheck terrain and snow over and over again before giving green light, and when they do give green light for competition to go, they are almost 100% sure it's safe. Yet it can still happen. This one of Kuzma wasn't first such incident and it won't be last either.

As far as I'm concerned, it's ALWAYS our call. Noone else then we ourself can be responsible for our own safety and our own decisions. Even in US skiing inbound, it's on the end only your own responsibility to ski that terrain and as far as I'm concerned, it's only your own responsibility if something happens. Sure you can go and sue ski resort after that, if you are lucky enough to stay alive, but that's secondary in my mind, as staying alive is primary objective. And that's always only in your hands.
But for first part... I wouldn't judge so easily. I admit without any problem, that I'm there skiing stuff when avi danger are at 3 or even 4 (this winter even when it was 5). Like it or not, most of time best conditions are when avi danger is high(er). It takes some planning and some knowledge to be out that time, but realistically, at least around here, except for spring, it's hardly ever under 3. Do we stay inside all winter then? I guess safest thing would be, but then again, most of people die in bed, so inside is not all that safe either I also agree many people go out risk their life thinking it's pretty big chance nothing will happen. Personally I try to stay on safe side, and go out there, but go into avi terrain (regardless on danger) with some data and facts, not with mentality "well it's little chance something will go wrong, so let's try". For now it worked, but doesn't mean it's not just luck. On one side, when you know nothing is 100% safe, you can always say it's just luck that you didn't hit that 10, 5, 1, 0.1, or 0.0001% that would be on dangerous side.

How is that possible that avie danger 4 or 5 is really fun skiing?

You would ski low angle terrain, so where's the fun in that?

 

[Primoz]

How is that possible that avie danger 4 or 5 is really fun skiing?
You would ski low angle terrain, so where's the fun in that?

Not necessarily, as it depends what's real cause for that certain danger rating. Next to that, avi forecast are always more averaged for bigger area, and with right knowledge (snow AND terrain), you can find places that are perfectly safe, even if general avi danger in area is high. And as far as I'm concerned, even low(er) angle terrain can be fun. It doesn't need to be 50+degrees to be fun. But we are all different

 

[James]

Came across this.
From the description:
-------------------
March 14th 2006, Nice sunny day, no clouds, no wind. Avalanche risk level 3 of 5. About 4-5 tracks of skiers and snowboarders were already there before I skied it. I'm the guy skiing (not the guy filming). I have skied out of the avalanche to the right behind the rock.
------------------------
They're on the itinéraire à ski, (ski route), "L'Eteygeon". Those are somewhat controlled.
Yellow line with black dashes:

http://www.performanceverbier.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Verbier-Piste-Map-2012-Large.jpg

 

[LiquidFeet]

Whoah.

 

[James]

 

[James]

Crevasse.

In French but doesn't really matter.

 

[Tricia]

Experts say there's much to learn about this avalanche season

 

[raisingarizona]

From your link Tricia,

“Certainly a lot of close calls this year,” Greene said. “The difference between a close call and a tragic accident is a very narrow margin. Looking back, I’m always impressed at how people can get caught in a very large avalanche and survive, and how small an avalanche people can get caught in and not survive. There is a lot of chance and luck.”

Ain't that the truth. It's best to just not F around with em! Man, listen to me, I'm getting old

 

[James]

This poped up on youtube. Late season avalanche. Amazing how long it goes on for.
Don't hike up a gully.

 

[James]

Study on a avalanche deaths in Utah 2006/7 -2017/8.

“Thirty-two avalanche deaths occurred in Utah during the study period. The mean (±SD) age of victims was 32±13 (8–54) y. Thirty victims (94%) were male and 2 (6%) were female. Seventy-two percent of deaths were from asphyxiation, 19% from trauma alone, and 9% from a combination of asphyxiation and trauma.
Snowmobilers accounted for the largest percentage of avalanche fatalities (15 victims; 47%) during the 2007–2018 period.”

https://www.wemjournal.org/article/...ltext#/article/S1080-6032(19)30050-X/fulltext