Lawinensicherheit

Avalanches are a guarantee for attention on the skiing Internet. Hardly anything gets as many likes and views as a spectacular helmet camera video of a descent where everything goes just right. If such videos are posted with honest reflections on the question "what went wrong?", they are often very instructive and valuable. However, if the line between self-reflection and self-promotion becomes blurred, you can be a little irritated. A commentary by Sven Rauber.

In the field of avalanche safety, ISPO 2019 was rather restrained in terms of major innovations. Some manufacturers revised existing products, changed minor details or added individual models to the existing product range. Spectacular innovations were largely absent (again this year).

Anyone who spends any time in the snowy mountains and therefore in potentially dangerous terrain should regularly deal with the topic of rescue and recovery. I myself pack my backpack before the start of winter, check the equipment for wear/function and fit the avalanche transceiver with new batteries (lithium ions). Then I meet up with friends to practise, exchange ideas and learn new things.

In addition to war zone-like reports from the Alps and #Powstria, you can currently also read headlines such as: "Skier suffocates in meter-high snow". In addition to the high risk of avalanches, days of intense fresh snowfall are accompanied by completely different dangers.

With the Integrated Avalanche System from Advenate, another innovative product in the avalanche backpack sector is coming onto the market for the 2018/2019 winter season. The principle behind the Advenate system: In addition to an airbag function, the IAS also has a breathing system, which is designed to increase survival time under the snowpack in the event of a burial. We have already spent some time on the mountain with the Surface IAS 32 and had a first look at it.

Stephan Harvey, a natural scientist and mountain guide, has been working at the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, SLF, in Davos for over 20 years. In addition to publishing several books on avalanche awareness, he is the man behind the well-known avalanche prevention platform, White Risk. In this interview, the avalanche expert talks to us about innovations at White Risk.

In order to describe avalanches - for example in avalanche bulletins, after accidents or for feedback from the terrain - standardized terms should be used for their size. From the 2018/19 season, the official EAWS terminology has been adapted to common usage in order to improve comprehensibility for winter sports enthusiasts.

An avalanche probe is actually nothing more than a "stick" made of several parts that you ram into the snow to locate the buried victim as quickly as possible. Nevertheless, there are differences that you should be aware of when buying one. I took the opportunity to get to the bottom of the avalanche probe.

The Snow and Safety Conference in Zürs am Arlberg is now part of the season opener on the Arlberg for the seventh year in a row. After last year's perfect conditions with a sufficient base and an additional load of fresh powder snow just-on-time, the participants and organizers were reminded once again this year that early winter does not always have the thickest snow cover.

"Is this usable for me or too technical?" - These were exactly the thoughts I had when I received an invitation from the SLF to give a presentation on skitourenguru.ch and the quantitative reduction method (QRM). I had had no previous contact with the QRM and the Skitourenguru platform was also largely unknown to me.

The Working Group of Austrian Avalanche Warning Services has published its seasonal report for winter 2017/18. As always, the report not only contains statistical evaluations of the past avalanche winter, but also many detailed and impressively illustrated analyses of specific accidental avalanches. In addition to the LWDs of the Austrian federal states, the SLF and the LWD South Tyrol are also represented with guest contributions. New this year: print version available from the Alpine Club store.

Günter Schmudlach is the inventor, founder and programmer of the Swiss online portal Skitourenguru.ch. The avalanche report assesses the risk of countless ski touring routes in Switzerland and soon in the entire Alpine region on a daily basis. A highly innovative project, in our opinion. We spoke to Günter about Skitourenguru in general, his motivation and his vision for the future.