Avalanche News - August 8, 2024
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Avalanche drama on Mont Blanc
Avalanche accident on Mont Blanc. As reported by "France bleu", there was a major avalanche on onday night. The masses of snow fell onto an important ascent route. A rope team was also swept away, the portal reports. At least 10 people were buried. At least one person died and numerous others were injured. Swiss nationals are said to have been among the victims.
More ... (Bluewin)
Monday 05 August 2024 - 17:51 - An avalanche on one of the paths used to climb Mont Blanc has killed at least one person and left four others injured. Search and rescue operations for other victims are underway. At around 03:00 this morning (August 5), a series of seracs – large blocks of ice surrounded by crevasses within a glacier – fell near the summit of the mountain. This caused an avalanche on the face of the Mont du Tacul, one of the main paths climbers use to ascend the mountain. This avalanche hit a number of groups climbing the mountain when they were more than 4,000 metres above sea level, affecting around 15 people. It is thought the fall of the seracs occurred due to natural causes.
More ... (Connexion France)
Thursday 08 August - Rescue services said Thursday they had stopped looking for two German mountaineers who went missing when a giant bloc of ice broke off a Mont Blanc glacier in the French Alps. The two climbers, both in their 30s, were presumably swept into a crevasse in the avalanche prompted by the toppling ice, they said. A French climber was found dead and four people were injured after the massive ice pinnacle -- known as a serac -- fell on Monday. "The search is over," said Jean Ailhaud, the deputy prosecutor in the Alpine town of Bonneville. "Unfortunately there is no longer any point. They were most probably hurled into the crevasse which is now covered in 10 metres (32 feet) of snow," he told AFP.
More ... (RTL Today)
Boris Dedeshko Describes the Avalanche on Khan Tengri
[News of this avalanche was included in our last news update on Aug 4]
Kazakh alpinist Boris Dedeshko was one of three survivors of several avalanches on 7,010m Khan Tengri last week. Here, he speaks to ExplorersWeb about the tragic incident and how he and two fellow Kazakhs survived while one man, Aleksey Smirnov of Moscow, died. The accident occurred on July 29 on Khan Tengri, the second-highest peak in the Tien Shan mountains. A popular mountaineering objective, it straddles the borders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and China and is one of the vaunted Snow Leopard peaks. The late Anatoly Boukreev considered it the most beautiful mountain on Earth. Although it is not an 8,000’er, it’s more difficult and dangerous than several of those Himalayan and Karakoram giants. Avalanches are frequent, and both the north and south sides feature an exhausting summit push. Dedeshko’s team was climbing from the south.
Dedeshko explained that this season’s abnormally warm weather caused avalanches both day and night. Most years, passing the so-called Bottleneck on the south side in the early hours is considered quite safe. But this season was different. Crossing was dangerous at any time of day.
The full article on ExplorersWeb includes some impressive photos as well as a detailed account.
More ... (Explorers Web)
Homer Tunnel Avalanche Shelter (NZ)
The most challenging engineering projects are often the most satisfying. Just ask the team who worked on Homer Tunnel’s brand-new avalanche shelter. Building in a World Heritage and National Park between avalanche seasons was no mean feat – made more impressive by having to deal with unpredictable weather and a tight construction timeframe.
Found deep in the rugged terrain of Fiordland National Park where snow-capped peaks meet towering granite cliffs, the eye-catching new shelter replaces an old 35-metre-long reinforced concrete shelter at Homer Tunnel which had significant seismic, rockfall, and avalanche vulnerabilities. Originally 150-metres-long, much of the previous shelter was destroyed by avalanches in 1945 and 1997. These incidents, along with other safety concerns, prompted the initiation of the shelter’s replacement in 2020.
More ... (WSP)
