Avalanche News - Jan 12, 2024
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The avalanche center was on vacation from Jan 4 until today. The news and incidents got a bit behind but are now being brought up to date.
CMH fined $84,000 in avalanche incident that killed two
Canadian Mountain Holidays GP Inc. has been fined more than $84,000 for failing to report an incident where a worker was “seriously injured” and two others died in an avalanche near Revelstoke, B.C. WorkSafeBC imposed the penalty in July 2023. In its findings, released to the public last week, the worker health and safety agency said the company failed to properly report the serious injury and disturbed the “scene before reporting the incident.”
The incident occurred in the afternoon of Jan. 23, 2023, when an avalanche occurred on the Chocolate Bunny run near Mount McCrae, about 25 kilometres southeast of Revelstoke, according to documents and the company's marketing vice-president Julia LoVecchio.
More ... (Vancouver is Awesome)
Archived Incident Information (Avalanche-Center.org)
Avalanches in the Middle Ages
A rather interesting article with links to additional sources.
“From lofty and rugged heights above it fell often huge masses of snow, carrying away everything they encountered, so that when some parties of guests had found their places and others were still waiting near the houses, these masses swept away the latter and suffocated some, whilst crushing and crippling others of those in the buildings.” ~ Rudolf of St.Trond
More ... (Medievalists.net)
Two snowshoers killed in avalanche in Italy
Two hikers on snowshoes were killed by an avalanche in the Italian Alps near Switzerland, a rescue service said Sunday. The force of the avalanche pushed one of the victims into a lake near the bottom of the slope, while the other body was found in the mass of snow, he said. Despite strong winds, a helicopter was able to lower a rescue team aided by a dog unit. To recover the body of the hiker swept into the lake, Italy’s Vigili del Fuoco rescue service said a helicopter was used to lower divers in a "complex" effort.
More ... (Avalanche-Center.org)
Mother and son die in avalanche - temperatures were -20C, skis blown away
A mother and her child have died after being caught in an avalanche in northern Finland, after temperatures dropped to -20C and the wind blew their skis away, police have said. The pair, who were not from Lapland, were heading for a local hotel after spending several days on a self-guided ski hike in the nearby Pallastunturi area, Lapland Police said on Thursday.
The woman told emergency responders that wind had blown away their skis and ski poles, the Lapland rescue services chief Harri Paldanius, said, and that she said "it was really cold, and it was getting dark." Conditions were so bad, the two snowmobile operators said they "don't recall experiencing something like this before. Driving a snowmobile on the fell was challenging, the mobiles were almost turned over by the wind," Mr Paldanius added.
The woman had put her phone in her jacket pocket in order to save the battery, he added, but said "when we tried to reach them again, there was no answer, but the phone did ring." The wide area of the avalanche, tightly packed snow, cold and windy conditions, as well as the risk of further avalanches, all combined to slow down the search effort. The darkness of the Arctic night also hampered the search. These past few days, the region has had only about five hours of twilight. The sun will rise above the horizon on Friday for the first time in almost a month.
More ... (Avalanche-Center.org)
