More Cairngorm Deaths

[Wildfisher]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-21469089

I would never have thought this would happen in  the Chalamain Gap. The death toll on our hills has been heavy this winter.   

This could have been any of us.

[Buanán]

Has to have been a wet snow slab/slope collapse, given the recent fresh snow. I drove south on Tuesday and it was howling through drumochter, -4ºc snowing and really windy. The temperature shot up dramatically Tuesday evening into Wednesday so the freezing level was a good way up the hill. That and the fact that all those buried died, although there were people on hand to dig them out. Wet snow has a nasty habit of freezing solid after a slide, a terrible turn of events.

[Bobfly]

This avalanche was reported as 400-500 metres across and a 3metre headwall so a big slide for that spot although a known location for slides. More worrying in a perverse sort of way is the string of groups without navigation skills or the simplest equipment. The group found over by the Fords of Avon, five from a group of six - not one with a map or a compass. About a month ago the Cairngorm team were out four times within five days to get in groups all attempting to navigate off mobile phones.

[Allan Crawford]

not one with a map or a compass.

I wonder how many had smart mobil phones, and secondly how many had smart mobil phones with any battery power left ?
I believe the 5 recovered earlier in the week where with an hour of the ski area ?
Usual story, silly season peaks next week !

[Buanán]

I know this may seem perverse, but this type of attrition is to be expected during a "good" scottish winter. Unfortunately, it's the norm rather than the exception.   

There can be no excuse for taking to the hills, especially the gorms, without the basics and the knowhow. But people do and I can't see it changing anytime soon.

The location of the car park has much to do with ease of access I reckon and I've used it many time for just that myself. Once as a kid we walked into Jean's hut as an alternative to the planned trip to the shelter stone, so fierce was the Northeasterly we were blown in without a care in the world, we had to dig the bothy out and plug the offending fag burn hole in the perspex window that was leaking snow like an open tap.

My pal was avalanched off "central crack route" that weekend, which added to the excitement, so much for sticking to the buttresses in heavy snow :roll:, all made the more exciting considering the care we'd taken to get to the foot of it avoiding the more obvious hazard. Gordon, the pal, was saved by the tip of his front point snagging as he slid down the groove near the top of the second pitch, all without a runner worthy of the name, we watched in horror from the safety of the chalkstone. All's well that ends well...

It later turned out that as we were having a jape on the way in, three lads (better and more experienced climbers than we were at that time) were fighting for their lives trying to reach the car park, two of them died.

Live and let live, whilst there are volunteers willing to man the teams to go to the aid of those in distress, regardless of the preparedness or experience of those caught out, I can't see the problem. As Fred says above, it could happen to any of us and it does happen to experienced practitioners from time to time.

[oystercatcher]

Apparently 2 were RAF personnel.

[Fishtales]

The three were from different climbing parties on the hill at the same time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-21469089

[Allan Crawford]

My climbing partner was avalanched out of the vent while I was holding onto the rock, I was caught in an avalanche in the back corrie at anoch mor while snowboarding, both were small localised avalanches, both when the warning was 3, both could have killed if we hadnt been a bit lucky !

[corsican dave]

quote from James Cook, BBC correspondent:  "It might seem strange but even after nine deaths in the Scottish mountains this year, there is little appetite here for anything to change."

the inferred criticism here shows how far removed from the reality of outdoor activities a lot of journalists and even more of the general public are! presumably he'd be at the forefront of a campaign to outlaw avalanches...
:roll:

[Wildfisher]

the inferred criticism here shows how far removed from the reality of outdoor activities a lot of journalists and even more of the general public are! presumably he'd be at the forefront of a campaign to outlaw avalanches...

Yes it's amazing the pish that is talked in the media each and every time someone is killed in the hills, always by people who would not know a hill if they bumped into one. How many people have been killed on Scotland's roads so far this year? Life involves risk.