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2025 Archive Index - All Editions

Search finds no victims after avalanche in Valais

Dec 24 - The descent of an avalanche in an off-piste area in the Les Crosets ski resort in the municipality of Val-d'Illiez VS appears to have been harmless. Helicopters and a rescue team with dogs found no buried victims on Tuesday afternoon. The search was stopped at 4.30 p.m., said Cynthia Zermatten, spokeswoman for the Valais cantonal police, on Tuesday at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency. No reports of missing persons had been received.
More ... (Bluewin.ch)

How Britain's deadliest avalanche struck Sussex

Nearly 200 years ago, in the depths of a freezing winter, a Sussex town became the scene of the deadliest avalanche in British history. In the early hours of 27 December, 1836, people living in seven cottages along the River Ouse in Lewes were warned by their neighbours that snow settling on the cliffs above their homes could collapse. The occupants of the cottages stayed put. For some, their decision would turn out to be a fatal. BBC Radio Sussex visited the pub where the houses once stood - the aptly named Snowdrop Inn. When the snow came crashing down onto the houses, there were 17 people inside - eight were killed and seven injured. Two babies, both just six weeks old, were the only occupants to escape unscathed.
More ... (BBC)

A skier in closed terrain caused a slide at Steamboat Resort

A skier triggered a snowslide on December 28 in Christmas Tree Bowl, which is an area that was not open. The skier went under the rope. That skier told a lift operator about the snowslide who reported it to Steamboat Ski Patrol. No one was caught in the slide but ski patrollers didn’t know that so they had to go over to the closed area to make sure no one was caught or injured. This put the patrollers at risk according to Steamboat Resort spokesperson Loryn Duke. Duke says they do not know who went out of bounds and caused the snowslide because the lift operator did not get his name. But she says there will be serious consequences if anyone else ducks a rope or goes out of bounds and they are caught.
More ... (Steamboat Radio)

Avalanche partially buries skier near Whitefish Mountain

A skier narrowly escaped injury after triggering an avalanche in a popular backcountry area near Whitefish Mountain Resort over the weekend. The close call in Canyon Creek was among a rash of human-triggered slides near the resort amid heightened avalanche danger due to recent heavy snowfall.

A skier and splitboarder were in an out-of-bounds area known as Oz on Dec. 29. The skier descended a portion of the upper terrain and ducked behind a tree to wait for his partner. The slope fractured above him before the partner dropped in, causing a wall of snow hit the skier and pin him against a tree. Both his skis were knocked off and he dogpaddled to stay above the moving snow. He was buried waist deep but was not injured. "Getting pinned against a tree almost immediately likely kept [the skier] from suffering serious trauma," an incident report noted.

Meanwhile, a skier with a separate group began descending the same slope in the Oz area, not knowing an avalanche had just occurred. The skier triggered another small slide, but was able to escape its path.
More ... (Whitefish Pilot)

Snowboarders Caught In Avalanche After Ducking Rope

Silver Mountain, a popular ski resort located in Kellogg, Idaho, is reminding their skiers and riders to respect resort boundaries after multiple snowboarders were caught in an avalanche on December 28, 2024. The slide occurred in a permanently closed area outside of the ski resort's boundaries. The riders, "knowingly ducked a rope closure line" and triggered a D2 wind slab avalanche that caught three of the four riders in the group.

"Fortunately no one was buried or injured during this event. However, it is a powerful reminder that slope and weather conditions in the mountains are continuously changing," writes Silver Mountain. "Our professional ski patrollers designate what is closed or open after careful consideration of current conditions and mitigation work. Please keep out of closed areas."
More ... (Powder)