Avalanche videos part 15

June 28th, 2016

End of the season wrap up. As far as avalanche safety is concerned it seems to have been a relatively good winter. Glad to report avalanche deaths in the Alps were substantially lower (61+) compared to the previous season (137+). US (27) and Canadian (16) winter was average in that statistic however with 0 (skier) fatalities in Colorado. That apparently hasn’t happened in a long time. Or as Karl Birkenland of National Avalanche Center points out: U.S. Avalanche Deaths Remain Steady in Past 22 Years Despite Explosion in Backcountry Use.

Assuming a conservative estimate of use increasing 8 times and combining it with our flat fatality trend means our fatality rate (avalanche fatalities per backcountry user day) has dropped dramatically. In fact, this suggests that our fatality rate has dropped by at least a factor of 8 (and probably more) over the past 22 years.

To the best of my knowledge there have been 0 fatalities in Slovenia this winter but that’s far less uncommon (despite the same type of increase in backcountry use experienced elsewhere). But more importantly for Slovenia, end of the season was also the start for the new and improved avalanche bulletin. And there’s some more exciting things coming out in the next few years.

Moving on to the videos collected since February:

Tanner Hall, setting off more than a few avalanches in this video