Part of the Crans-Montana ski area Sunday, where skiers were tempted by good snow and sunshine
Sion, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Two accidents, Sunday and Monday, have caused serious injuries in Chandolin and Crans-Montana, Valais. Two 15-year-olds from Geneva were rescued after they set off an avalanche near Chandolin Sunday, where they were skiing off piste. On the slopes of the Crans-Montana area a man skied into a tree just off the groomed trail.
One of the youths from Geneva is in critical condition in the Sion cantonal hospital after being dug out from under one metre of snow, but the other came through relatively unharmed after freeing himself, and he’s been released from the hospital. The two set off the avalanche themselves at 2,447 metres, according to cantonal police. They had taken the Illhorn chairlift and were skiing on a northeast facing slope.
Neither of them were wearing detectors. The avalanche occurred about 11:30 and two Air Glacier helicopters plus seven avalanche search dog teams set off and by 13:00 they had freed the trapped youth. The avalanche measured 300 metres long by 20 metres wide. TSR carries a photo of the area.
In the second accident Sunday a 41-year-old man from The Netherlands skied off the groomed piste near the Grand Signal station at Cry d’Err (Crans-Montana) for unknown reasons, and he received serious head injuries when he ran into a tree. He was flown to the cantonal hospital in Sion.
Valais authorities and the federal avalanche research institute are warning about the danger of avalanches with mild temperatures and wind loading on slopes. Monday’s report notes that “Both new snow and snowdrift can be triggered by a single backcountry skier or freerider. Experience in the assessment of avalanche danger and avoidance of snowdrift accumulations in outlying terrain away from secured ski runs are important.
TSR notes that nine French ski tourers with skins were caught by an avalanche in the Val Bedretto Saturday, but none were injured and they were escorted out by rescue teams after the helicopter sent for them was unable to land because of high winds.
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
News story, GenevaLunch, 22 December 2008.
Filed under: Society
Tags: avalanches, Chandolin, Crans-Montana, ski accidents, Switzerland
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December 22nd, 2008 at 2:14 pm
[...] Bad news (see GL story): a 56-year-old skier died in Graubuenden over the weekend when he went off piste in deep snow and fell, injuring himself badly. He died at the scene of the accident. Two teenage boys were caught by an avalanche Sunday when they skied off piste near Chandolin and one is in critical condition in the Sion hospital. A 41-year-old man from The Netherlands received serious head injuries when he skied off the trail in Crans-Montana and ran into a tree Sunday. And a group of French ski tourers were rescued after they were trapped by an avalanche in Val Bedretto. [...]