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2025 Archive Index - All Editions

In This Edition:

Mountain Guide Learns from Avalanche Accident

Christian “Hechei” Hechenberger has fulfilled his dreams. He lives with his wife and two children at the foot of the Wilder Kaiser, works as a mountain guide with two close friends in the small but excellent alpine school “Rock & Roll,” and spends a lot of time in the mountains tackling challenging projects on rock and ice. During a ski tour in 2020 Hechei had an avalanche accident on the Grosser Rettenstein in the Kitzbühel Alps in which he and his guest were seriously injured.

Of course, every mountaineer and mountain guide has questions after such a drastic event: How could this happen? What did I do wrong? How can I prevent such an accident in the future? It soon became clear that he had not done anything ‘wrong’, and this was confirmed by a forensic expert during the investigation. Nevertheless, the realisation remained that, although there was actually nothing wrong with the tour, he could very easily have died with his guest. In any case, the accident prompted him to take another critical look at his approach to guiding in winter and to publish these thoughts in the form of an interview for bergundsteigen.

This is an extensive article covering his self-reflection after two incidents, one avalanche and one rock climbing. The publication is German but the article is in English.
More ... (Berg und Steigen)

Alison Hargreaves daughter dramaticly escapes avalanche

The daughter of mountain climber Alison Hargreaves has narrowly escaped an avalanche just months before the 30th anniversary of her mother’s death. Kate Ballard shared terrifying first-person footage of the rapid fall of snow in Charmonix, France, and as it rumbles towards her she says to herself: ‘You need to get out of here right now. Ohh my gosh. Hurriedly turning around on her skis, the video then shows her begin to ski down the hill and then turn around and see the snow getting closer. Mercifully she had been with her speed wing, a paragliding-like device which is attached to the user with a harness, a decision which potentially helped save her life because it meant she could fly away to safety.

Sharing the shocking footage online, she said: ‘No doubt in my mind that my mum and brother were looking out for me.’ Both her mother Alison Hargreaves and brother Tom Ballard died while climbing. Ms Hargreaves lost her life less than a year after she became the first woman to reach the summit of Everest without the aid of Sherpas or bottled oxygen in 1995. Three months after her successful climb of Everest, which made her internationally famous, the then 33-year-old died while descending K2, which sits on the border between Pakistan and China. Her son Tom  lost his life while climbing 24 years later. In March 2019 his body was found with fellow climber Daniele Nardi on Nanga Parbat in Pakistan. Mr Ballard was aged 30.
More ... (MSN)

Black Diamond Parent Company Offloads Pieps Avalanche Brand

Clarus Corporation, the parent company of Black Diamond, has reached an agreement to sell its Pieps avalanche beacon brand and the JetForce avalanche pack intellectual property to a private investment firm for €7.8 million ($8.75 million). The deal, which includes both cash and debt, is expected to close before the end of the third quarter of 2025, pending customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, including those related to foreign direct investment requirements.
Source ... (Snowbrains)

On the compressive strength of weak snow layers

We determined the compressive strength of weak layers of faceted crystals and depth hoar using artificially grown samples with a wide range of microstructural morphologies in a cold laboratory setup. Micro-computed tomography (µCT) imaging showed that the microstructures of the artificial samples were comparable to that of natural depth hoar. We performed compression experiments in a displacement controlled testing machine on 92 depth hoar samples with densities ranging from 150 kg m−3 to 350 kg m−3. The compressive strength spanned two orders of magnitude (1–150 kPa) at strain rates of about 10−3 s−1 at and followed a power law as a function of density. Several microstructural metrics such as the specific surface area, connectivity density and correlation lengths obtained from µCT measurements exhibited a statistically significant relationship with compressive strength. Analysis of the residuals of the power law fit showed that in addition to density, horizontal correlation lengths also correlated with strength. However, in this study, density remained the dominant predictor of the compressive strength of depth hoar.
More... (Cambridge University Press - Journal of Glaciology)

Climber Survives Near Miss With Avalanche - Video

A mountain climber in Alberta, Canada, captured the heart-stopping moment he was nearly swept away by an avalanche on Mount Balfour. The moment will have you holding your breath as you see the snow slide down the mountain and hear his panicked reaction.
More... (Weather.com)

History: Man survives Sun Road avalanche

50 years ago - May 16, 1975 - Dennis Holden was walking on the Going-to-the-Sun Road near Road Camp when an avalanche struck him, buried him four times and swept him down the mountain 300 feet. He survived, however, as the road crew lowered a rope down to him and hauled him up the slide.
Source... (Hungry Horse News)

Avalanche near the Eiger buries several people

An avalanche buried several people on the Eiger in the Bernese Oberland on Saturday afternoon. A large-scale operation involving numerous rescue teams is underway, as the Bernese cantonal police announced on Saturday afternoon. According to the police they are looking for people buried in the snow. The police promised further information. The Eiger is a mountain almost 4,000 meters high not far from the border between the cantons of Bern and Valais. The Bernese Oberland tourist resorts of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen and Wengen respectively are located nearby.
Source... (Bluewin.ch)