Mountain guide in avalanche
Thursday February 11, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

Even the professionals get caught sometimes.

Judging whether the conditions are safe is not an exact science, but rather an evaluation of many, many different factors and sometimes coming up with the best educated guess.

In the latest incident a 60-year old Italian guide was skiing off piste in Crans Montana in Switzerland when he was caught in a slide last weekend.

He was with 3 clients and decided to ski a slope in the Favarges area at 12.30 on Saturday. He went first.

He set off an avalanche that was 150m long and 50m wide with a depth of 1m according to the local police.

Two other off piste skiers saw the incident and alerted the rescue services and came to his aid.  He was buried for 15 minutes and was found by the signal from his transceiver.

2 rescue dogs were deployed to the scene.

He was conscious and taken to a hospital down in the valley where the authorities say he is in a stable condition.

All incidents are investigatedHe is just the latest professional to get caught and each incident is investigated.

Last week a ski instructor with off piste leading qualifications was killed in the Austrian resort of St Anton and earlier in the season an experienced mountain guide and his clients were killed in a massive avalanche near Les Arcs in France.

In the worst incident in Switzerland this winter a doctor was killed by a secondary avalanche while attending an incident near the capital Berne.

We reported on it here.

The first decision rescue services make at an incident is whether it is safe to try a rescue mission or if there is a risk of another avalanche and further loss of life.

So why are so many professionals getting caught?

Here at PlanetSKI we are speaking to guides and safety experts and will try to answer that question later in the week.

There are conflicting theories doing the rounds.

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