In mid-April 2013, the PowderGuide team met in the Jamtal valley in Tyrol for the final meeting of the season. In addition to a social get-together, this year's program included training and further education with avalanche rescue expert Manuel Genswein. Once again, it was an impressive experience to work with the leading expert in avalanche rescue systems and search tactics. Manuel Genswein is a co-developer of Mammut's Barryvox avalanche transceivers and has had a significant influence on the development of many rescue devices and techniques. He trains mountain guides and professional mountain rescuers in more than 20 countries and is the most sought-after expert in his field.
And because there are now so many of us at PowderGuide, Manuel also brought along the two well-known Innsbruck mountain guides and avalanche experts Peter Plattner, editor-in-chief of the risk management magazine BergUndSteigen as well as the expert for the assessment of avalanche accidents and alpine scientist Walter Würtl. There was a lot of alpine know-how at the Jamtalhütte at the time and nothing stood in the way of a successful meeting apart from the long, flat ascent through the Jamtal valley.
More than decent snow conditions, great, albeit somewhat warm spring mountain weather and a pinch of fresh snow: this is how the appealing touring terrain around the Jamtalhütte presented itself on Saturday (13.4.2013).
It's a shame to have to disappear into the seminar room at the Jamtalhütte, but Manuel Genswein wouldn't be who he is if he didn't manage to explain in a way that was both easy to understand and exciting at the same time why no calculation algorithm on modern avalanche beacons can even come close to the differentiation ability of human hearing and how the analog sound of the "beeper" can really solve any avalanche scenario. And with many more insights and full of energy to try out what we had learned in theory in the form of practical avalanche rescue exercises, we set off into the terrain in three groups.
The Saturday was packed with lots of course content: anyone who has ever carried out a rescue exercise with Manuel and had him introduce them to the complex world of how avalanche transceivers work and how they should ideally be used, as well as the best way to rescue avalanches, knows, in the best Socratic sense, that they actually know nothing compared to Manuel. But Manuel manages the transfer of knowledge almost perfectly. All the questions we have discussed and debated cannot be presented here, you simply have to experience Manuel for yourself at a course or lecture.
The two rescue techniques developed by Manuel, micro search strips and V-shaped snow conveyor belt, should be outlined as examples of the course.
V-shaped snow conveyor belt
Thanks to modern 3-antenna avalanche transceivers, it is usually possible to locate buried victims quickly and comparatively precisely. The often crucial time elapses before it is possible to dig out the buried victim(s). To save vital time here, Manuel Genswein has developed the so-called V-shaped snow conveyor belt. This optimized rescue strategy enables the buried victim to be uncovered quickly and in a resource-efficient yet gentle manner.
Micro search strips
If there are several buried victims in a small area and they cannot be clearly identified by the searcher and their avalanche transceiver, micro search strips can be used as a special search method: Within the micro search strips, close-meshed search strips are arranged in parallel. Depending on how close together the buried victims are and how many people have been buried, search strip widths of between 2-5 meters are selected.
In the late afternoon, the last PGs who had chosen the approach via Ischgl arrived: just in time for the afternoon beer on the sun terrace. Unfortunately, or fortunately, unlike at the last big meeting of the PG family, our accommodation this year was not torn down immediately after our meeting, so unfortunately the drytooling on the walls and ceilings of the hut parlor had to be cancelled. The friendly and nice hosts of the rather hotel-like Jamtalhütte would certainly not have been happy about this either.
Contrary to the forecast, Sunday morning turned out to be rather cloudy and gray. Was it because of all the beer? No, the culprit was a compact field of clouds from a residual disturbance, which quickly dissipated under the strong April sun. After the intensive training program the day before, Sunday was course-free and so individual tours to suit our own tastes were on the agenda. We quickly formed small groups to explore the surrounding peaks and powder and sulz slopes. In the north-facing high areas, one or two lines with amazingly well-preserved powder snow still beckoned. In small groups, we set off to explore the beautiful high alpine, but quite leisurely terrain around the Jamtalhütte with its various peaks and glacier plateaus.
Avalanche accident: two members of the PG team fall over rocks
The fact that we still found amazingly good snow and some great descents lost all meaning in the face of a serious avalanche accident in which two members of the PowderGuide team were swept about 400 vertical meters and washed over rock bands.
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Two groups set off to climb two couloirs below the Augustenköpfe. At the exit of the two gullies, they split up and one group climbed up a couloir directly in the north face of the Augustenköpfe, while the second group of the two casualties climbed up the transition between the lower and upper Augustenferner. The snow conditions at the start were excellent for spring conditions: a fairly homogeneous layer of old snow and little, but well-connected fresh snow. The two climbed partly on foot and partly on skis up to the start of the upper Ferners, where they triggered an approx. 45 m wide snow slab on foot, which swept them along and washed them several hundred meters through rocky terrain until the avalanche fortunately ran out in relatively flat terrain.
The two victims were injured to varying degrees: The avalanche airbag of the less seriously injured, presumably not only prevented him from being buried, but according to his own statements, protected him while he was washed over the rocks by the avalanche. He was therefore able to start searching for his comrades as soon as the avalanche stopped and immediately located the more seriously injured colleague who was buried by a few centimetres of loose snow, which he was able to free immediately. The other team members of the second group were also quickly on the scene and treated the injured. It was clear that both had to be taken to hospital as quickly as possible. The alarmed rescue center sent two helicopters, which arrived after a few minutes.
The less seriously injured man was flown to hospital in Zams, where a major flesh wound to his hip, which he had sustained in the fall over the rocks, had to be treated and stitched up. He has since returned home and is improving day by day.
The seriously injured man was flown to Innsbruck University Hospital and had to undergo several operations on his hip and cheekbone, as he had sustained several fractures in the fall. He is now much better, is already taking his first steps and is recovering from the accident.
Surface rime as the probable cause of the avalanche
For us, the accident was a shock and overshadowed the meeting, which had a cheerful, exuberant atmosphere despite the serious subject matter. All concern was focused on the two victims.
The weekend and the following week in April 2013 were among the most avalanche-prone of the entire winter of 2013 in Tyrol. For this reason, only one accident investigation was carried out by the Alpine Police; no further snowpack investigations were carried out in the avalanche start area. Patrick Nairz from the Tyrolean Avalanche Warning Service speculates that snow-covered surface frost, which had not been destroyed despite the previous warm phase on the extremely steep north-facing slope, probably formed the sliding horizon in the area where the snow slab hit. Large quantities of drift snow were deposited on this weak layer. At the time of the accident, the danger level in the area was 2 for moderate avalanche danger, with a focus on wet loose snow avalanches, but warnings were also issued for smaller drift snow packs in the high alpine northern sector. Despite the very small amount of fresh snow and generally westerly winds, the north-facing slope of the accident had been blown in with a lot of drift snow during and after the light snowfall of the past few days, which made the quite powerful snow slab possible.
What's next? Dealing with the avalanche events
By far the most important thing for us is that they both make a full recovery and are able to enjoy their beloved mountain sports again. Fortunately, the forecasts for this are very good. At the same time, we will deal with the serious avalanche accident as best we can. Just a few weeks earlier, another PG team member had been injured in an avalanche.
We want to work through these accidents with the PG team. Together with all interested parties, we want to work continuously on optimizing the risk culture from now on. One focus will be on weighing up and optimizing the individual and consciously taken risks. Even if every winter sports enthusiast must ultimately answer the question of the justifiability of their chosen risk themselves, we have (for a long time) advocated reducing the risk maxima, as represented by extreme undertakings, in favor of a reduced residual risk that is socially acceptable. Because it remains PowderGuide's most important goal to support winter sports enthusiasts in minimizing their risk and to promote the dissemination of common risk check methods.
In the coming winter of 2014, we will therefore also focus more strongly on the topic of risk checks and avalanche risk management on the PowderGuide.com portal and deal with it intensively in a series of topics for both beginners and advanced skiers.
But it is also clear: PowderGuide is a large community with many members who are far more active than average. Due to the steady growth, the cumulative total number of winter sports days of PowderGuide friends and members is increasing significantly. We are all in alpine terrain and therefore never completely risk-free, which is why accidents in the PowderGuide environment cannot be ruled out. All the more reason for us to see it as our moral obligation to focus on the issue of risk minimization and to do our utmost to ensure that every PG team member can practice their beloved sport with a justifiable and minimal residual risk.
