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| Avalanches |
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| In the popular mythology of danger, avalanches play a starring role.
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| Avalanches |
They rank alongside earthquakes, flash floods, sharks and lightning strikes as deadly, unpredictable, unstoppable forces that can strike at random to maim and kill unsuspecting holidaymakers.
At the other end of the spectrum, the rationalist view of avalanches would have it that they can be controlled, their risk managed or even eliminated by a combination of technology and common sense.
The truth lies somewhere between these extremes. For the most part avalanches are creatures of habit - they start under fairly predictable conditions and they follow the same tracks year after year. As long as you follow some basic rules, you need never put yourself at risk.
Most avalanche accidents happen when people ignore these basic rules. The majority of avalanche deaths among skiers and snowboarders are caused by the skier or snowboarder themselves or somoeone in their group.
Every so often, however, freak weather conditions change the rules. Either so much snow falls, or it falls under such unusual weather conditions, that normally safe slopes become avalanche-prone. These are the big killers, which come down unexpectedly on villages from slopes which have no history of avalanching.
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