When I arrived in Belgrade on the last day of September, I knew drizzly walks and brisk fall temperatures were in the cards. But on my third day in Serbia, less than two weeks into autumn, the snow started falling-and when I woke up in my cozy mountainside hotel in Zlatibor the next morning, it was piled 10 inches high.
Avalanches kill about 100 people in Europe each year, with vast masses of ice, snow and rock regularly crashing down on hikers and skiers who have been caught unawares. The structure of the snow, angle of the slope and variation of the weather can dictate whether a gentle disturbance like a gust of wind or the glide of a snowboard can trigger a deadly shift in the mountain.
Downhill skiing requires a clear head and quick reflexes; being intoxicated can adversely affect both of these things. Skiing is fun, but it can also be deadly.When it comes to actually setting legal boundaries on skiing while intoxicated, policies vary dramatically from country to country. In a recent article for The Local, Amanda Previdelli noted that - unlike some of its neighbors - Austria has no laws on the books specifically prohibiting skiing while inebriated.
"Last season's pass was publicly on sale for around 30 days in total. This spring, we are down to a single day. There's a rising demand for affordable, independent, and authentic ski experiences."
Runaway snowboards were a cause of great concern in the early days of snowboarding as snowboards don't have breaks like skis. This concern was justified in many ways as proto snowboard bindings much less secure and reliable than modern systems using simple straps, rubber components, or basic buckles that could loosen or fail more easily during a crash.
On Monday, February 23, Pierre Denambride, the 51-year-old head of slope safety at Flaine in Haute-Savoie, France, was killed while working on the mountain. One day later, on Tuesday night, a 41-year-old resort worker died in a separate quad accident in Flims, Switzerland, part of the Flims Laax ski area. The back-to-back tragedies have drawn attention to the use of quad bikes-often fitted with tracks or crawler systems-by ski patrol, slope safety teams, and mountain operations staff across Europe and North America.
Pemberton RCMP said they were notified of a missing skier at about 2 p.m. on Tuesday in the backcountry east of Pemberton, in terrain near Mount Matier and the Anniversary Glacier by Joffre Peak. RCMP Insp. Robert Dykstra said an avalanche occurred in the area where the skier was believed to be travelling, prompting a search-and-rescue response.
Cornice collapses can be incredibly dangerous, having the potential to crush people, pull them down mountains and potentially over rocky cliffs, and cause larger avalanches. Professional skier Josh Daiek doesn't seem to be impacted by cornices as much as a regular skier or snowboarder would be, though. This incredible line starts with a heart pounding moment as he looked over the edge.
The most dangerous ski runs will always be those located outside of ski resort boundaries. With no avalanche control or ski patrol to help you out in the event of an injury, a run in the backcountry comes with risks that rarely exist on resort. But what are the most dangerous ski runs on resorts? It would be near impossible to make a definitive list without injury statistics that simply don't exist, but Uncovering Skiing still took a stab at it.
The terrain park operates on different rules and guidelines than the rest of the ski resort. While the downhill skier always has the right of way on the rest of the mountain, skiers and snowboarders are responsible for clearing out of any landing zone as soon as they can. Hanging out in the landing zone or allowing your child to hang out in the landing zone, as we see in the video below, is absolutely unacceptable,