swiss avalanche fatalities

A terrible day in Switzerland yesterday.  

http://www.slf.ch/praevention/lawinenunfaelle/unfaelle_alt/unfaelle_aktuell/index_EN

A terrible season, already.

Note that the avalanche risk has not been very high; 2 - 3. That just shows that you can never be certain and must always take great care to observe what you can and take ALL precautions.

Very much agreed, Steve, but they do look to be mostly at level 3, which as we know means 'Considerable'. If any of us were to go out in a car when the risk of a potentially fatal incident was 'considerable' I reckon we would be very careful indeed - in fact possibly not go out at all.

Andrew

There were several days at 4. The number of fatalities at 2 on the annual list is considerable. The Verbier fatality was on a '3' day. She was 17 years old. Her group had gone under the Closed: Avalanche danger sign on to an itinerary run. Like dozens of others. They were buried by a spontaneous wind slab avalanche from an extreme steep rocky N slope above them. She was not wearing a transceiver. You can tell young people, but many feel invincible and just think yeah yeah. The Americans remove your lift pass permanently if you're caught going under a rope. Young people can relate to that.