![]() We were traversing across to get to our route down, using FatMap to follow the lower gradients and staying sub 30 degrees, but still going one at a time from high points of safety just in case.Īs I led us forward, I saw that the snow below me was behaving strangely. This is a massive red flag of danger, and I missed it. Other avalanches are a big indicator that there will be more. If you hear “thunder”, get the hell out of dodge. But that’s a serious warning sign and a huge lesson to learn. I believe it was the latter as we didn’t feel it, only heard it. The likelihood is that it was either the snowpack moving or a nearby avalanche. Thunder snow is a phenomenon that is incredibly rare. Turns out this is a highly unlikely scenario. I heard what sounded like rolling thunder and assumed because it was cloudy and snowing, therefore it was thunder. Anyway, the clouds started to come in so we reverted to our original plan to skin to a plateau on the looker’s right in Vorlaz bowl, cut across and ride through the trees. Initially we thought we could get up and over the ridge into a route locally known as “Pepsi Max”, I don’t know why it’s called that but I’ve never skied it and I really want to. ![]() Skip forward to January 11 and we’re looking at a day with decent visibility in the morning and a plan to go touring. There was a tree line we wanted to ski but we came down too low to ski it without skinning up again, and with more snow due we made a plan to return and do a slightly different route. Two days prior we had hiked up and ridden the main face with no dramas and face shots of powder on the way down. But finally this week we got about 60cm of snow, and with the wind direction it meant the Vorlaz bowl got a pounding with the good white stuff. This meant we had rain, and lots of it, right to the top. ![]() We hadn’t had much snow for nearly a month, December started strong but then fizzled out with the freezing level rising. The conditions were looking perfect for Alastair We started with two coffees in Avoriaz before heading over for our day of adventure. Morzine is my home and, while a low resort, it offers some of the best terrain in Europe for exploring the backcountry not too far from where the lifts finish and you need to put the skins on.Ī well-known area is the Pointe de Vorlaz bowl, there are so many lines to ride there that you could spend a week just going up and down this small area. I live in the Haute-Savoie region of France in the Portes du Soleil. It sounds, and reads, like it’s not a huge danger. He also had the same safety equipment and training. I was with my friend Marius who was there to dig me out. I am alive to tell this story because my friend and I both had airbag systems, transceivers, probes, shovels and have done multiple avalanche safety and rescue courses. My wife wasn’t too happy when I called her to tell her about what happened. Tumbling down a mountain face at nearly 40 km/h, completely blinded by snow thundering over my head and feeling weightless as I was carried over a cliff was not how I had envisioned spending my third wedding anniversary. On Wednesday January 11 2023, I was caught in an avalanche. Here, he explains to Ever Wild Outdoors how he’s still here to tell this tale… Luckily, some good training, excellent equipment and a couple of cool heads saved his life. Little did the 33-year-old know he would be staring death in the face at the mercy of an unforgiving avalanche. ![]() But there was nothing standard about how the day ended. Adventurer Alastair Band was enjoying what he thought was a day of fairly standard skiing in the French Alps – familiar slopes he knows like the back of his hand.
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