Comments on: European Randonnee Ski Mountaineering Race Scene

By: Oliver

Oliver — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 20:38:15 +0000

OK, I have to admit the word “official run” was my own term. It’s not just the groomed areas. They also have marked areas where you can enjoy fresh powder, but are controlled. I am pretty sure that almost everybody who gets caught in an avalanche in Switzerland knows that they were in uncontrolled terrain. Lot’s of times the patrol does mark were you leave the controlled area. It’s just not as rigorously done as here in the US. I am just a little baffled about your comments that yield the impression that the Europeans kind of play russian roulette. I think the main reason why more Europeans get killed is that there is just tons and tons of very beautiful but also dangerous terrain.

By: Lou

Lou — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 16:46:28 +0000

Romeo, if that’s true I’d think it a mixed blessing. On the one hand perhaps we’ll get cooler production rando boots in the shops. On the other side, the really wild stuff will not happen as fast.

At the least, one would hope they’d let the racers do a few minor mods to production boots. But officiating that sounds like a chore.

By: steve romeo

steve romeo — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 15:59:04 +0000

Rumor in Italy was that next season you can only race with production boots…meaning NO modifications!!!

Having fun in Cortina…skiing some sweet couloirs. One more day left then back to JH!!

Chow!!!!

By: Andrew McLean

Andrew McLean — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 01:44:00 +0000

Hi Oliver,

I guess the crux issue there is the definition of an “official” run. Are you talking about groomed piste runs? If you die 10 meters off of a groomer, does that count?

From discussions with two Swiss friends, to be considered a ski area, you have to have one descent that is maintained and controlled. In the case of somewhere like La Grave with 7,000′ of vertical, one controlled run represents about 1% of the skiable terrain, so it is a fallacy to say that there have been no avalanche fatalities at La Grave just because nobody has died on the groomers. (I don’t know – maybe they have..)

The flip side of the issue would be if someone died skiing at Sliverton Mountain in Colorado. If they rode the chairlift and were killed in a slide, I think it would be considered an official death at a ski area, official piste run or not.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 20:40:13 +0000

Andrew says: “The resorts are huge, wide open and do almost no control work by US standards. Add to that the mentality that avalanches are seen as an unavoidable act of God, and you begin to see why so many people die over there.” ……wow….. that’s a very bold statement.
I have to say I grew up in Switzerland and skiied/snowboarded there for 20 years and never expected to get buried when I was skiing on the slopes. The ski patroll does a very good job in controlling the slopes. However there is a key difference between the US and Switzerland. As soon as you go off the official slopes in Switzerland, you are considered to be out-of-bounds, and therefore the terrain is uncontrolled. I reviewed the fatal accidents of the last 5 years in Switzerland and 0 fatalities are reported on official ski runs. (see for example 2005: http://wa.slf.ch/unfaelle/unfall05-en.html)
Just wanted to clarify that.
Now you could argue they should also start roping everything off and use the Gate policy as we do it here in the US. But some of the resorts are so huge it’s pretty much impossible to do that.