Skier Clipped by Plane, Suffers “Near Amputation” A Polish woman was seriously injured Thursday when she was hit by a plane careening down the slopes of Avoriaz in the French Alps. The ski-equipped Jodel single-prop plane failed to take off from a snowy high-altitude runway near the ski area, and the pilot was unable to stop the plane as it slid into resort bounds. The plane skirted a group of children and slid under a chairlift before clipping a 55 year old Polish woman with its propeller, almost completely severing her hand. Emergency services reported that she suffered a “near […] ameliatraynor | March 16, 2015 2 Comments
VIDEO: Aussie Skier Rescued After Burial in Swiss Avalanche January 30, 2015 – Les Crosets, the Swiss-French border. Australian skier James Mort and his three friends were just a week into their month-long ski trip when a storm brought more than three feet of fresh snow in a 48 hour period. Although the avalanche risk was a 4/5, the men were eager to make up for the dry conditions during the week prior. After spending most of the day playing it safe, they decided to head off-piste for fresh tracks in a wooded line known amongst locals as a safer option due to its short length and low pitch […] Avalanche ameliatraynor | March 12, 2015 0 Comments
Video: Couloir Riding in St. Anton, Austria Between St.Anton and Kappl there is this about 600m vertical couloir which nobody seems to ride. A beautiful line we had to check out. The high pressure has given us great touring conditions the past few days. But day time heating has made everything but pure north facing slopes sketchy. On the weekend there was around 300 human triggered avalanches just in Tyrol – Crazy! The high pressure has given us great touring conditions the past few days. But day time heating has made everything but pure north facing slopes […] Conditions Report Eike Poeppelmeier | March 9, 2015 0 Comments
Epic Powder at Arlberg, Austria Epic powder and bluebird skies – What more could you ask for? The biggest problem today was so many great lines to ski and perfect pow on all aspects. Where to go first in this huge accumulation of ski resorts? We started our day close to home in Stuben, which has a lot of great north facing runs. Good choice, just like any other today. The snow was just amazing and it kind of reminded me of that velvety AK powder that is just so effortless to ride […] Conditions Report Eike Poeppelmeier | March 6, 2015 0 Comments
Back to Winter at Arlberg, Austria After a week and a half of high pressure and spring like conditions we are back to winter weather. This is good news because everything but north facing slopes were getting pretty thin. Sunday it snowed about 10 cm and it was a nice little refresh, though a lot of places you were still hitting crust. Monday morning there was a couple hours of sun which we used to shred the rocky steep backside of Rendl, St. Anton. You can reach the ridge line from […] Conditions Report Eike Poeppelmeier | February 24, 2015 0 Comments
“Winter of Terror” (1950-51): 265 Avalanche Deaths in the Alps In the winter of 1950-51, a previously unrecorded number of avalanches rocked the Swiss-Austrian Alps, killing over 265 people in the span of three months. Coined the “Winter of Terror”, this series of 649 avalanches destroyed over 900 buildings and thousands of acres of forests. This period is thought to be a result of atypical weather conditions in the Alps: high precipitation due to the meeting of an Atlantic warm front, with a polar cold front resulted in 10-15 ft of snowfall in a two-to-three-day period. Over 40,000 people were buried under snow over the 1950-51 season. Avalanche ameliatraynor | February 18, 2015 8 Comments
Conditions Report Arlberg, Austria: From Full on Winter to Spring in 24 Hours This past week has been full of surprises. Sunday and Monday were gray dump days. Resulting in about 20cm of fresh pow and bluebird skies on Tuesday. In the morning it was amazing riding great snow on all aspects, good stability and fun big lines and drops. During the day temperatures were on the rise, by the afternoon snow on all aspects except pure north were starting to get heavy but it was still really fun off piste. Late afternoon it was T shirt weather literally. Wednesday it got super warm, freezing level went up to 2600m […] Conditions Report Eike Poeppelmeier | February 12, 2015 0 Comments
FATMAP: Hi-Res 3D Ski Mapping App Launches in the Alps FATMAP, a new ultra-high resolution 3D ski mapping app, officially launched this week at three European resorts. The app offers unprecedented accuracy and detail, with a resolution of 2m (compared to google maps’ 30m), as well as numerous other features that are “set to revolutionize skiing and snowboarding”, say the creators. Detailed freeride mapping shows exactly where the hidden off-piste lines are, including […] ameliatraynor | February 10, 2015 0 Comments
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