UKC

Hello all,

Report in to the Rjukan avalanche in Feb where a British climber died and another injured. 

"Gausta Marathon" the report is in English.

https://klatring.no/sikkerhet/ulykker/alvorlige-ulykker/

Careful out there folks,

worth having some means of locating your self either by a hand held satnav or a phone app.

I'll be honest, I didn't realise there was an avalanche forcast for the area. The twice I've been over we had no snowfall and extremely cold days so the ground snowpack was pretty solid. Sobering reading, thanks for posting.

Blimey, 6 hours for rescuers to turn up!  Is this normal for the area?

It is one hell of a hill side.  13 pitches. And some.  Knowing yout exact grid location can help with location.  Up to 80 people were looking for them. Massive massive effort.

Surely the rescuers will have known the route they were on though? Are helicopters not used?

There was thick clag in the valley that day, helicopters don't usually fly through that in peace time

Well. Interesting you ask  they were not on the route. They were on exit slopes. 300 -400m worth. And what if you think you are somewhere else.  The rescue team went to where they were told.  The rescue was massive.  The ground conditions were very poor.  Went on for 3 days.  

Didn't know doing CPR on the back is a thing. Anyone knows much about it? Efficient? Is it just a last resort only for when the patient is 'trapped', or a good option to avoid turning a person with suspected back injury?

Search Prone CPR

CPR. And save airways trumps everything

Ah thanks. I was searching for 'back cpr' and variations and couldn't find much

Ah, fair enough. Poor chap.

I think you have an unrealistic expectation level.

Weather was very poor, and helicopters not possible.  

Due to the continuing avalanche risk reaching them quickly via the top wasn't possible, so a more complex rescue becomes necessary.  Also, Rjukan is a small place and while  local fire brigade have some basic skills, this wasn't a basic rescue, and of the the 70 or 80 people involved , some needed to travel in.

'I'll be honest, I didn't realise there was an avalanche forcast for the area. The twice I've been over we had no snowfall and extremely cold days so the ground snowpack was pretty solid. ' 

The area has ski resorts and a lot of wet snow was being dumped, with the exit to the route being on an avalanche prone slope with avalanche prone conditions present .  Walkoffs aren't always simple and climbers should expect and be prepared for that.  We cancelled a trip for that weekend as it looked extremely dodgy

If helicopter uplift isn’t available or possible, 6 hours wouldn’t be unreasonable for quite a few winter venues in Scotland, particularly where those in need of assistance were on steep exit slopes near the top of the hill in clag. For some of these locations that would actually be a good response time.

Even if it hadn’t been misty it may not have been possible to undertake a winch as they might have been worried about triggering a bigger slide with the slope loading by the helicopters down wash.

I wonder if British climbers, who don't ski tour, are becoming less avalanche aware. I've been back in the UK for a decade and have winter climbed every winter in that time. I've seen avalanches in the Lakes and heard about them in Wales in that time, but they are pretty rare. An article about Patterdale MRT in the Guardian last month mentioned that the team haven't had to deal with an avalanche incident on Helvelyn for some time. In Scotland they of course remain a risk but in low snow winters (like this has been), and when conditions seem to swing with deeper thaws, they don't seem to be a prevalent as I remember back in the 90s with snowier winters. I'm sure the Avalanche Service has actual records on this, but at least that is my impression. 

I've not climbed in Rjukan, but my impression is many of the routes are 'crag ice climbing' with little or no overhead danger, so when people do get on longer routes that go up hillsides they are not necessarily look above. Where I've climbed in Northern Norway, avalanche conditions and overhead risk was always a major consideration because the vast majority of the routes were low on mountainsides with major snow fields higher above the tree line and ice does form in major avalanche tracks.

I'd argue British climbers have always been quite avalanche ignorant - all you have to do is see the kickback here when you mention things like transceivers, probes, and shovels. Especially given that UK gullies are ripe for avalanching, even more so with the 'marginal' conditions they are often done in. 

That's the perception amongst brits for sure, especially for the shorter roadside routes many frequent. For those it often is the case that you don't need to worry so much about avalanches, but the longer routes (such as the one in this case) can be very avalanche prone - I wonder how much of the same mindset is applied across them.

Depends on where you climb. This is mostly on the single-pitch area, like  Krokan. But places like  Gausta Area and partly  Svadde Area, plus places like  Mael are indeed avalanche prone. And even stuff in the Upper Gorge in not completely safe.

Think volunteers come from as far as Oslo so thats 3 hours on a good day. Then the bad weather and conditions on top of it. 

I think UK Scottish winter climbers do have a respect for avalanche conditions (the ones I know do at least) but tend to avoid avy areas and most dont own avy kit let alone use it. Dont think it would have helped in this situation.

This year has been quite bad in Norway with avalanche deaths in most most snow sport regions. Hemsedal, Rjukan, Tromso and Lyngen. 

Some apps I find helpful getting out in Norway....

-Varsom is the norwegian avalanche app with area observations. 

- Yr for weather.

- Pent for a weather report of Yr and Storm weather models.

- Windy for more weather.

- Hjelp113 is an app which you can call emergency services with and will send your location.

- Ut or Norgeskart are free map/ navigation apps.

This is so true it's worth repeating 

So so true...

and knowing your exact location helps the team locate you faster as well.

I am always reminded of the woman who was  missing for nearly a week in the 80s. The group that she was with were convinced they knew which ridge she had fallen off but they were wrong. The MRT were looking in the wrong place.   There is a pod cast with the team leader talking about it.   

Missing for two days in 1994, party members thought they were on Derry Cairngorm, when they were ascending Sron Riach and MacDui.  Combined Braemar/Aberdeen teams understandably failed locate on first night. RAF team tried to access to search W side of Derry from Luibeg Glen at first light next day and couldn’t even progress against the wind at low level.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/mountain/id1058294652?i=1000385891789

The (in)famous ‘a Guinness would be nice’ rescue.

That's the one.   Perfect.