Austrian fatal slide with airbag

[hortence]

Sad news:

Brit Teen Equipped With Air Bag Killed In Austrian Avalanche

http://austriantimes.at/news/General...rian_Avalanche

[totaliboard]

^yea. kind of a concerning anecdote regarding the fact that they were accompanied by a professional instructor. Sounds like the instructor was about as competent as the teenagers.

[klar]

The so called instructor was a ski guide. They were on a standard Arlberg offpiste route. I very much doubt there was an issue of "authorization" of the terrain, whatever that is supposed to mean. The discussion here is less about the airbags and more about what danger level one means and why it was given that day.

[justr]

I think it is a reminder that avy forecasts are only of a certain granularity, that low risk still implies risk, and that equipment is only about giving you a better shot... Equipment cannot be thought of as protection. An airbag is not a condom. It isn't the morning after pill.

Sad story. Vibes to family and friends.

[Besniwod]

Here is a pdf file of the avalanche bulletin for that day and region.

Found it kind of hard to find precisely where the slide was but seems like it was somewhere around the blue line in this picture starting on a 40° slope (source). The red lines are the official ski routes.



From the bulletin with emphasis added:

"Far and wide, low avalanche danger prevails. Isolated avalanche prone locations are to be found on steep, shady slopes and in drifted gullies and bowls where older snowdrift accumulations can be released by large additional loading (e.g. from a skier group not maintaining distances) at rim areas, i.e. in transitions from shallow to deep snow. The danger zones tend to increase with rising altitude. Apart from the peril of being buried in snow, the hazards of being swept along and falling should also be taken into consideration. During the course of the day, fresh snowdrift can accumulate, especially in the typical foehn-exposed regions. On steep, grassy slopes, isolated full depth snow slides still cannot be ruled out. Areas beneath glide cracks in the snowpack should be carefully watched for and avoided whenever possible."

The bulletin also warned that avalanche prone locations were on NE, N and NW aspects on "extremely steep terrain; shallow-to-deep transitions; isolated snowslides on grassy slopes."

[klar]

The red lines are actually summer hiking trails. The term ski route in Austria means an ungroomed but marked and controlled slope. The term has a clear legal meaning. Apart from groomers, these ski routes are the only part of the ski area that are controlled. They are pretty much always completely bumped out and many ski areas don't have any. They were not on a ski route but where they were is considered a typical offpiste area, which gets skied all the time. If the slide had happened on a ski route, it would be the same as if it had happend on a groomer, in terms of blame and responsibility of the resort.