Fraser e-mailed the link of this impressive video to James and me on April 10.
https://www.facebook.com/yqueffeulou/vi ... 628854869/
6 days later driving out of Val d’Isere we had an overview of that slide path from the other side of Lac du Chevril.
The road into Tignes 2100 and Val Claret was blocked for 4-5 hours.
On Friday our last guided run around 12:30PM was in Vallonet, the second of 4 off-piste bowls east of Le Fornet. On the middle section of skiing, our guide Didier directed us far skier’s left to avoid a blind rollover. As I approached Didier I saw this off to my right.
But soon we saw this scene below.
Didier is at far left in the picture, preparing rescue gear in case he is needed to assist. He told us to switch our transceivers to receive to avoid confusing searchers.
Helicopter approaching:
At this point it was unclear if there was more than one victim, so here someone is searching more of the avalanche debris.
Another searcher with a dog:
Closeup of fracture line:
Closeup of rescue scene:
You can see the orange airbag at upper right. The man directly below the airbag is looking into the excavation hole. By his right leg you can see another man’s head, which confirms the report that the burial was 1.8 meters deep. Fortunately the buried woman was rescued and not seriously injured.
We were surprised not to find much news about this incident later. Fraser found this brief story:
Rescues from 1.8 meters are rare. I suspect the airbag took up enough of the volume to allow a faster successful excavation.
Overview of the complete fracture and somewhat funneled slide path from below:
https://www.facebook.com/yqueffeulou/vi ... 628854869/
6 days later driving out of Val d’Isere we had an overview of that slide path from the other side of Lac du Chevril.
The road into Tignes 2100 and Val Claret was blocked for 4-5 hours.
On Friday our last guided run around 12:30PM was in Vallonet, the second of 4 off-piste bowls east of Le Fornet. On the middle section of skiing, our guide Didier directed us far skier’s left to avoid a blind rollover. As I approached Didier I saw this off to my right.
But soon we saw this scene below.
Didier is at far left in the picture, preparing rescue gear in case he is needed to assist. He told us to switch our transceivers to receive to avoid confusing searchers.
Helicopter approaching:
At this point it was unclear if there was more than one victim, so here someone is searching more of the avalanche debris.
Another searcher with a dog:
Closeup of fracture line:
Closeup of rescue scene:
You can see the orange airbag at upper right. The man directly below the airbag is looking into the excavation hole. By his right leg you can see another man’s head, which confirms the report that the burial was 1.8 meters deep. Fortunately the buried woman was rescued and not seriously injured.
We were surprised not to find much news about this incident later. Fraser found this brief story:
.https://www.ledauphine.com/savoie/2018/04/13/une-skieuse-emportee-par-une-avalanche-a-val-d-isere":1o3xullv said:
Rescues from 1.8 meters are rare. I suspect the airbag took up enough of the volume to allow a faster successful excavation.
Overview of the complete fracture and somewhat funneled slide path from below: