The shocking thing was the silence. Without a sound, a crack appeared in the mountainside and the slope slipped away, taking our guide with it. It was around midday and we were climbing on skis towards the Col du Belvdre, high above the Chamonix Valley. Our guide, Guy Willett, had gone ahead to assess the snow conditions on a questionable-looking slope and now, with the rest of the group — including his wife — I looked on, stomach lurching, as his suspicions were horribly confirmed.
He was traversing the slope when a slab of snow, perhaps ten metres across, broke away a couple of metres above him. For a moment, it held together, so Guy was standing still on a moving carpet of snow; then it fractured into a jigsaw of pieces, forcing him to dance on his skis in an attempt to stay upright. Then, as quickly and quietly as the slope had come to life, it settled, a terrible beast once more transformed into blameless inanimate snow.
Skilled in snow
"Now, that's a really good example of a wind slab," said Guy with a grin when we regrouped on the far side of the slope. "Exactly what I was telling you about. Does anyone have any questions?"
Avalanches are back in the headlines this winter after a string of fatal accidents in the Alps and the Rockies. Though the season is still young, with the peak months of February and March to come, Switzerland has already seen nine deaths, seven of them in a single incident in the Diemtig Valley. There have been seven deaths in Italy and the same in France, including that of Nigel Jackson, a British skier who died on Christmas Day at Le Tour, in the Chamonix Valley, after becoming separated from friends on the final run of the day. Unusual weather patterns in the Alps, including swings between heavy snowfall and warm weather with rain, have led to some dangerously unstable snow conditions over the past month.
Across the Atlantic too, avalanches have been taking their toll: Since mid-December, 23 skiers have died in the US and Canada. And three of those deaths were "in bounds" — that is, on slopes within the resort area that should have been monitored and made safe. "One in-bound fatal avalanche in a season is unusual; three separate fatal incidents are really rare," said Bob Comey, director of the Bridger-Teton National Forest Avalanche Centre in Wyoming.
Alpine alarm
Though it's too early to say if this winter will set a grim new record, the deaths have already prompted controversy and a search for scapegoats in the Alps. Newspapers are debating whether off-piste skiing should be banned, whether anyone who sets off an avalanche should be prosecuted and whether ski resorts are to blame for glamorising off-piste skiing.
"Skiing off-piste in the next few days is an act of recklessness," ran the headline in Swiss newspaper Le Matin on Boxing Day, attracting online comments such as "stop the massacre" and "I can't understand why off-piste skiing is still tolerated". One suggested skis might carry a warning such as those on cigarette packets — "off-piste skiing kills". An article in another Swiss daily, Le Temps, ended with a bad-taste joke doing the rounds in the Alps about the ski patrols' practice of making slopes safe by bombing them to set off any potential avalanches: "The best bomb of all is still a Brit."
Ideal guide
With all that in mind, Guy Willett is exactly the person you want to be skiing with. I had come to Chamonix for a weekend of backcountry skiing with Dream Guides, the company Guy runs with his partner Kenton Cool. While the silver badge worn by all mountain guides has a certain aura, Guy and Kenton are at another level — celebrities of the mountain world, with strings of first ascents, descents and new routes to their names. In September, Guy made what is believed to be the first complete ski descent of Manaslu in Nepal, at 8,165 metres the eighth-highest mountain in the world. Kenton was the first Briton to ski down an 8,000-metre peak but is best known as one of the world's top Everest mountaineers. He has climbed it seven times, more than any other European.
For ski and climbing fanatics, going out with Kenton and Guy is not far off a Manchester United-nut going for a kick-around with Giggs and Rooney. To be honest, I was a little star-struck but, thankfully, both are determinedly down-to-earth. Take Kenton's explanation of how he got into guiding: "Well, I was working on a job painting a power station near Barry Island. There was nothing to do in the evenings, so we went to a pub in Llantwit Major. My friend bet I wouldn't apply to be a mountain guide, so that was that ..."
The Himalayan expeditions come with glamour but also massive overheads and slim profits, so Dream Guides also runs more mainstream trips for everyone from the very experienced to total novices. You can go to them for help with your first foray off-piste and stay with them through tougher trips in the Alps and on until you are ski-mountaineering in Nepal.
Off-piste, of course
Our weekend focused on the skills of skiing off-piste safely. On the Rognan glacier, close to the Grands Montets ski area, we donned harnesses and learnt about the dangers of crevasses. We practised using transceivers to find buried avalanche victims, ignoring the bubbling-hot tub to run around in the snow with our beeping radio beacons.
But the best lesson came on our climb to the Col du Belvdre. Teaching avalanche safety is notoriously difficult and there are few straightforward rules. I had been to several talks and read books and watched films on the subject but gained little more than a false sense of security. But as I stood next to Guy, pushing my pole into the snow to feel the changing texture as he explained what to look for, it started to make sense.
He showed us how to recognise the change from light, powdery and relatively safe snow, to the dense, windpacked slabs that can cause whole mountainsides to fall. We learnt to assess the risks, judging what would happen if the slope avalanched, how big the slide would be and whether it would carry us over a cliff or stop. "So when the wind slab cracked off under Guy, only to stop, as he had predicted, the lesson not only made sense but seemed valuable indeed."
Ensure insurance before you ski.
It may seem superfluous after the recent weather but thousands of people will be taking winter-sports holidays in the next few months — and more than half of them will do it without insurance.
Skiing does not cause the most accidents — horse riding and football injuries are much more frequent. And it doesn’t even cause the biggest number of fatalities: According to the National Ski Areas Association, a US body, there were 3.9 deaths per million skiers or snowboarders in 2008 while there were 74 fatalities per million swimmers in the same period.
Serious trouble
But you only have to look at the video clips on Ski-injury.com to see that when accidents do happen, they can be serious — and expensive. The average claim for medical expenses arising from injuries incurred while skiing is £684 (Dh4,072), according to World First Travel Insurance, but that average disguises the enormous amounts that some people end up paying.
The Association of Mountain Doctors in France says it dealt with 140,000 injuries in the 2008-09 ski season. Paul Thilo of Direct Travel Insurance says: “The French Mountain Doctors’ report is a reminder that good travel cover is paramount when you’re skiing or snowboarding. It goes without saying that the price of travel insurance is negligible when you consider the cost of medical bills and mountain rescue.” So what should you look for in a winter-sports policy? First check if you are already covered by an existing product, such as insurance tacked on to a present account, and how far that cover extends.
More than half of the annual travel policies available make ski cover an optional extra but again you should check whether all the activities you want to do are included, says Martin Rothwell of World First Travel Insurance. “Those which do include cover for skiing and snowboarding will normally cover you to go off-piste but very few policies allow you to do so without restriction,” he says. Does it cover off piste without a guide, for example?
The Ski Club of Great Britain says if you think you may be taking part in activities such as tobogganing, ski touring, glacier skiing, heliskiing or even hitting the snowpark, you should make sure your policy also covers this.
Likewise, if you or your children are taking part in fun races with the ski or snowboard school, ensure this is covered. Many policies do not cover racing, not even recreational races.
Check for cover
Thilo advises that purchasers check their policy also covers medical and air ambulance costs, including search and mountain rescue; personal liability cover in case you are the cause of someone else’s injury; physiotherapy costs; and piste closure due to high winds and lack of or too much snow.
Older skiers may be tempted not to bother, because of the cost, even if they can find an insurer to cover them. But don’t give up: There are policies and a good insurance broker should be able to find one that meets your needs. World First’s ski and snowboard insurance, for example, is available to skiers up to the age of 79. A fully comprehensive policy for a 74-year-old starts at £54 (Dh321) for a trip lasting three days.
