EventReport | Snow & Safety Conference 2017

For six years now, Zürs am Arlberg has been providing this update on the first weekend of the winter season with the conference. In addition to numerous coaching sessions by Arlberg-based professionals from the freeride scene (Stefan Häusl, Lorraine Huber, Nadine Wallner), there are special courses for young people at the conference, which, unlike the coaching sessions for adults, can be attended free of charge. On both evenings, there will be approx. 30-minute expert presentations on the topic of "off-piste" to round off the days.

This year, the conference fell on the first weekend in December and the conditions, like the rest of this year's early winter, had nothing to do with the situation in recent years. While St. Anton appeared slightly sugary on arrival, it was clear by the time we reached St. Christoph that the measuring stations and weather reports weren't telling us any nonsense. This impression was confirmed by the beaming faces of the guides and participants, who spoke of a memorable first day of the season on the Arlberg. Unfortunately, we had missed it due to our work, but we were just in time for the Friday evening lectures at the Robinson Club.

On Saturday there was also a great response to the training courses on offer on a fantastic, albeit damn cold, early winter's day. In my opinion, two training courses that are otherwise rather difficult to find deserve special mention.

The first was an avalanche emergency scenario with multiple burials, in which mountain guide Stefan Rössler, together with RECCO, created a realistic scenario with different burial depths and body dummies. This revealed those problems with shoveling out that you never get to in the avalanche transceiver training park. ("Damn, we're at the leg, the head is over here").

The other was the newly introduced training course "Helicopter Rescue am Arlberg" powered by Mons Royal with the rescue team "Crew Gallus 3", which enabled the participants to get to know the helicopter rescue procedure including a flight on a long rope.

Compared to last year, there was again an increase in the number of participants as well as a great rush for the free coaching sessions for young people. It seems that word has spread around the Arlberg and the surrounding area that an all-round successful event has been established here at the start of each season. As a treat, in addition to new or updated knowledge, with a bit of luck you could take home a prize from the sponsors present at the closing raffle.