Thanks to Bergschlawiner of the MRA International Committee and Seattle Mountain Rescue for sending in this story.
Who: 45-year-old Dagmar H. from Klosterneuburg
Where: Planneralm Ski Area near Schladming, Austria (shown in photo below)
Her mistake: Skiing in an avalanche prone area
What happened: On Tuesday morning the police were notified of an avalanche at the Planneralm ski area and were told that a touring skier was buried while skiing down the Karlspitze. The burial was witnessed by the 45-year old woman’s four companions who started a hasty search immediately. While rescuers were heading to the scene, the other skiers were able to locate the woman using their avalanche beacons and started digging her out. The woman was buried for 20-minutes under 2 meters of snow. Rescue helicopters brought the rescue teams to the scene and flew the woman to a hospital. The helicopter crew remarked that it was a wonder that the lady survived such a burial and she was conscious and talking while she was being dug out and during the helicopter ride to the hospital. This is one lucky lady!
Read the Story in German here.
Note: The risk of triggering an avalanche makes ski touring the most dangerous winter sport, claiming about 150 lives annually in the Alps alone. The basic message is that to survive an avalanche you have to be rescued within 15 minutes, with half an hour to wait before the rescue services arrive on the scene this comes down to your friends. Your life depends on carrying and being proficient in the use of avalanche transceivers and having snow probes and shovels. In ideal conditions it will take around 5 minutes to locate a victim with a transceiver and 10 to 15 minutes to dig them out from the average depth of burial which is 1 meter. This lady was buried under 2 meters! Swiss studies show that persons buried for 20 minutes have about a 65 percent survival rate.
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