Sharing information about accidents

I was guiding off piste in Le Fornet just after the avalanche. I went into the ski patrol hut and had a longer conversation with an aggressively barking dog in there than with any security people.

The Signal lift is the only direct access to the Point du Grande Vallon and there was no information or warning posted - everything running as if totally normal - it just felt completely wrong.

If I hadn't learned 5 minutes before taking my group out - just by chance - then I would have had no idea what was going on. I personally never ski on the face that avalanched because there are often massive avalanches there right down to the river and it's totally exposed - but I may have skied on the shoulder leading back (NW) towards Le Fornet village - though on this day the weight of new (but strangely consolidated) snow would probably have prevented me from traversing around on the exposed faces to get to the shoulder.

There were massively changing temperatures and a storm was beginning at high altitude with poor visibility so further accidents could have become very complicated indeed. There is definitely a communication problem and it seems that the resort wants to actively play down the danger so as to avoid losing business.

Val d'Isère avalanche: is it safe to ski off piste?

Two avalanches since Christmas in the French resort of Val d’Isère have killed five people including two British skiers and raised the question: is it safe to ski off piste this winter?

Peter Hardy, the Telegraph's ski correspondent, assesses the risks.

12 Jan 2011

The off-piste instructor Didier Moreau, who together with his wife somehow survived Tuesday’s massive avalanche, is my friend.
Over the years I’ve skied with him many times and unquestionably I will do so again.

Didier is not only enormously experienced as an off-piste guide, but he is also one of France’s best Telemarkers and a national examiner of instructors.

He’s an expert in snow craft. He doesn’t take any unnecessary risks and in as far as I know he did not take one on Tuesday morning. He followed all the rules. However, just occasionally, the mountain breaks those rules.

Didier works as a senior guide and instructor for Top Ski, Val d'Isère’s iconic off-piste ski school that was established in 1976 by the former French racer Pat Zimmer.
Until this week Top Ski has never had a single avalanche death. A high proportion of the school’s loyal clients are British.

I stumbled across Top Ski back in 1980 and have skied with them each year ever since in every possible snow condition. They are the acknowledged experts at what they do.

Each morning they take small groups in search of the best powder in and around the resort. For safety reasons, the normal maximum size of each group is six. On this occasion it was seven because Didier’s wife, herself an expert, chose to join him.

Each November I help to organise a series of ski clinics with Pat Zimmeron on the glacier in neighbouring Tignes. They are designed for skiers who want to improve their technique both on- and off-piste. Didier works with us.

Last year Zimmer sold Top Ski to one of his clients and the mountain guide Jean-Marc Kaufmann now manages the school. But he continues to work in the business as technical director. Each morning Zimmer rises before 6am and assesses the snow conditions. At his 8am morning staff briefing he suggests where guides should take their clients – and where they should not.

The avalanche happened above the outlying hamlet of Le Fornet on a steep pitch that is known locally as “Oh My!” The risk was three out of a maximum of five on the international scale. But this is still normally acceptable for an experienced guide who knows, given the existing snow conditions, which slopes he can consider safe.

Ironically Zimmer was not present at the Tuesday briefing. He was in hospital in Grenoble recovering from head injuries sustained just after Christmas when he was hit by a holiday skier on piste.

Experienced skiers will tell you that the best way to survive an avalanche is not to get caught in one. The force of a slide of this magnitude – it was 2,500 feet long – is so enormous that at its maximum velocity the shock wave of air that precedes it destroys trees and anything else in its path even before the snow reaches them.

It rocketed to the valley floor, crossed the river, and climbed partly up the mountain on the other side before stopping.

All Didier’s group were equipped with radio transceivers that pinpoint your position under the snow. At least one of the party was wearing an ABS airbag backpack. If you pull a trigger this inflates a balloon-type designed keep you on the surface of the avalanche. First reports suggested that the wearer didn’t manage to pull the trigger.

The ski guide’s job is both technical and intuitive. By digging a hole he can work out to what extent the different layers of snow have adhered together.

Local knowledge collated over a century dictates which slopes are prone to avalanche. Current weather conditions and wind speed play their part along with the time of day – you don’t venture off-piste in the afternoon when the snow pack will be at its warmest.

But the guide’s sixth sense is also crucial. Pat Zimmer’s spent many thousands of hours instructing off-piste without serious incident and I’ve shared a few of those. Time and again I’ve seen him suddenly stop, sniff the wind like a fox scenting trouble, and turn away from a seemingly benign and inviting slope.

"Why?” I’ve asked.

“I don’t know,” he’s smiled. “It may be safe, but you and I are not going to find out. I have a feeling about it – I can’t explain.”

A series of small snowfalls and some extreme fluctuations in temperature have made the snowpack less stable than usual for January in the Alps.

Skiing off-piste well away from prepared runs (and the crowds upon them) is the essence of the sport. No feeling on earth can match the enjoyment of a descent in deep powder with friends on a perfect blue-sky morning. But it is essential to remember that – like the sea – conditions in the mountains can occasionally be both unpredictable and dangerous in the extreme.

By skiing with a local qualified guide you reduce that risk to a normally acceptable level. But risk remains.

My own experience of an accident off-piste, 16 years go while accompanied by a guide, taught me a serious lesson. A friend was killed and I was seriously injured in a fall in a steep couloir.

In the final analysis when you venture off-piste you must be aware that, even though you have a guide, it’s entirely your call.
To hand over all responsibility for your safety to someone else can have fatal consequences.
There’s no suggestion this time that the guide made a mistake. But all of us are fallible.

On that fatal day this week I was skiing in the Maurienne Valley – just a few miles away from the scene of the avalanche.
In the company of a guide I trust and with all the sensible safety precautions, I shall continue to ski off-piste this winter and all winters. For me, it’s a risk worth taking.

What to do if caught in an avalanche

If you’re wearing an ABS backpack, pull the trigger and release your airbag. Hopefully this will keep you on the surface.
Try to ski or tumble to the side out of the path of the slide as quickly as you can.

If possible get rid of your skis and poles (never wear wrist loops in a potential avalanche zone).
The sensation is of being in a high-speed washing machine. Swim furiously for the surface and try to get your head above the snow. Make the biggest effort as the avalanche slows.

Try to keep nose and mouth free from snow and use your arms to establish space around your face before it finally stops.

Avalanche debris has a similar mass to setting concrete and further movement becomes impossible.

Ski safety: how to avoid avalanches

If you are completely buried but wearing a radio transceiver your chance of survival is 34 per cent. After 15 minutes this starts to fall dramatically.
If you are not fully buried, survival chances are over 90 per cent.