Avalanche News - June 1, 2024
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Swiss avalanche deaths slightly higher than average
Avalanches resulted in 23 fatalities during the 2023/2024 winter, according to the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF). Over the last 20 years, there has been an average of 21 avalanche fatalities per year in Switzerland. The total reported number of people caught up in avalanches last winter is also higher than on average – 261 cases were recorded in the last few months compared to an average of 220.
More ... (SwissInfo.ch)
Bodies of American Climber and Her Sherpa Retrieved in Tibet
A team organized by Nirmal ‘Nims’ Purja returned to Shishapangma, Tibet, this month to retrieve the bodies of American climber Anna Gutu and her guide Mingmar Sherpa, seven months after their tragic deaths in an avalanche in October 2023. Nims’ team was given special permission by the Chinese Government to climb Shishapangma, as the team around Elite Exped, Nims’ company, knew the precise location of the two victims.
More ... (SnowBrains)
Beartooth Highway Hit By Avalanche, Remains Closed
May 29 - Officials want to open Beartooth Highway, one of the main routes to get to Yellowstone, but still can't. Opening day was delayed due to weather and now it's because an avalanche has pummeled the road. “It was a small avalanche that brought some debris down and did a little bit of damage to the road,” said Sherry Weamer, executive director of the Red Lodge Area Chamber of Commerce. “But from what I've seen, it's not significant.”
Update: The damage was since repaired and the road should be open as of June 1
More ... (Cowboy State Daily)
Palisades Tahoe avalanche cause of death
Kenneth Kidd, the skier killed in the January avalanche at the Palisades Tahoe resort, suffered no injuries, but the 66-year-old Marin County resident suffocated after being buried in snow for about 45 minutes, a medical examiner determined. In the final Placer County coroner’s report, obtained Wednesday by the Chronicle through a public records request, deputies detailed Kidd’s final moments on the slopes Jan. 10, before the 150-foot by 400-foot avalanche swept skiers up along the famed KT-22 lift and the steep runs it services. Like many avalanche victims, Kidd’s cause of death was determined to be suffocation and an accident.
More ... (SanFrancisco Chronicle)
Three sentenced to two years in prison over 2017 avalanche deaths
Utsunomiya, Tochigi Pref. – A district court on Thursday sentenced three people to two years in prison over deaths caused by an avalanche during a school training program in Tochigi Prefecture in 2017. Presiding Judge Toshifumi Takioka at Utsunomiya District Court found the three defendants guilty of professional negligence resulting in death and injury after eight people, mostly students from the Tochigi Prefectural Otawara High School mountaineering club, died in the avalanche during hiking training in the Tochigi Prefecture town of Nasu.More ... (The Japan Times)
