Danger of death from avalanches – buried under the masses of snow: a survivor reports – News


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Completely walled in snow, unable to move and less and less oxygen – the short way off the piste can quickly end in tragedy. This year 15 people lost their lives in an avalanche. Patrik Howald was lucky in disguise two years ago.

“I was completely covered in snow and couldn’t move.” In January 2021, Patrik Howald was hit by an avalanche in the Lauchernalp ski area in the Lötschental. From the mountain station, the 30-year-old and his friends walked five minutes further up to draw their lines behind the mountain in the untouched deep snow. “We knew that there was a tricky passage – and wanted to cross it individually and carefully.”

Everything goes well on the first attempt, but when the group tries to go down the slope again, disaster strikes. “It was like in the movies. With the second turn, the snow cover broke apart in front of me and everything began to swim. I thought I’d make it out – but suddenly there was only snow everywhere.”

Legend:

Patrik Howald caught this avalanche near Lauchernalp.

zvg/Patrik Howald

A short time later, Howald is completely buried under the avalanche. At the last moment he gets his hands up and forms a small air pocket in front of his mouth. Shouting, on the other hand, does no good – the voice is lost under the masses of snow. “I couldn’t move, didn’t see or hear anything. So I tried to save energy and use as little air as possible.”

Every second counts

Meanwhile, his friends are searching for him above the snow. The first few minutes are crucial. After around 15 minutes, the chances of survival drop drastically. Fortunately, the group is well prepared: they have all the avalanche equipment with them. Before skiing, they tested the avalanche transceivers in the parking lot.

Complete avalanche equipment


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Freeriders and tourers should always find out about the current avalanche danger and always equip themselves with a shovel, probe and avalanche transceiver (LVS).

However, the rescue can only work smoothly if everyone has practiced the rescue measures and the devices have been tested beforehand.

Howald does not know how far the group has come with the search operation. He only notices that the oxygen is getting scarce. “There’s a lot going through your head – even that it could be over today.” However, he was not afraid of dying. “I knew that I would just fall asleep.” So Howald stuck under the snow cover for minutes – as if embedded in concrete. “It wasn’t pitch dark, more like an impenetrable light blue.”

Patrik's head sticks out of the snow masses.

Legend:

The group discovers Patrik Howald’s head under the masses of snow.

ZVG/Patrik Howald

Then Howald felt an avalanche probe hit his head. After eight minutes, his friends can dig him up. Luckily they discover the head first, because every second is precious here too. “As soon as I felt something, I started screaming again and tried to tell my friends that I was fine.”

Latent residual risk

On average, around 21 people a year are less fortunate than Howald – they die in the snow masses. This season, 15 people died in an avalanche while touring or off the piste. Most recently, two young people were buried in an avalanche in Meiringen in the canton of Bern.

It often makes the difference between life and death whether a person is completely buried. If the head is also covered, only a little more than every second person survives, since the casualties often have no or only a small air pocket in front of their face.

Patrik escapes with a shock and survives the avalanche unharmed. Additional rescue need not be requested. The incident is not the end of his passion for skiing. Just one week after the incident, Patrik Howald is back on the slopes. But he would never take a risk like that again. “If someone in the group has a queasy feeling today, we’ll skip the tour.”

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