What a horrible way to die.
American student killed by avalanche while backcountry skiing at her Swiss boarding school
by Anonymous | reply 44 | April 23, 2024 12:31 AM |
[quote]Then the mountain fell apart beneath her skis – and left her parents wanting answers.
[quote]The bulletin warned there could be weak, older layers of snow, and Emily and her classmates knew what that meant. They had just had an avalanche safety course a couple of weeks earlier.
Your daughter was a spoiled, careless, thrill-seeking junkie. There's your answer. But of course it's those damn foreigners they need to blame instead.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | April 22, 2024 4:31 AM |
I can’t even imagine what her parents must be going through but she, and they, knew the risks. It was a tragic accident, not criminal negligence.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | April 22, 2024 4:44 AM |
[quote]Your daughter was a spoiled, careless, thrill-seeking junkie.
She may have been a spoiled thrill-seeking junkie, but I’m not sure you can really call her careless if she took avalanche safety classes and skied with a transponder and all that. Unfortunately, she chose a dangerous sport to get her adrenaline rush.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | April 22, 2024 4:55 AM |
Shwish avlansh?
by Anonymous | reply 4 | April 22, 2024 5:00 AM |
Her death was a terrible tragic accident, but the parents are now screaming for revenge, even though they said they knew how dangerous backcountry skiing was and warned their daughter many times. if that's so, then they need to accept this was a horrible accident. They sent their daughter to a skiing school for thrill-seekers in Switzerland; they knew the risks. I'm sure their guilt is why they're so set on revenge now.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | April 22, 2024 5:27 AM |
Another student was killed in the same avalanche, no mention of his parents. One of the commenters pointed out that her father was a trauma surgeon who had undoubtedly lost patients, did those parents come after him?
And I think most of their anger is horror is due to finding out that their daughter’s body was found in two pieces (no further description). Once you have that picture in your mind, it never goes away.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | April 22, 2024 12:31 PM |
death by affluence
by Anonymous | reply 8 | April 22, 2024 12:32 PM |
FAFO
by Anonymous | reply 9 | April 22, 2024 12:35 PM |
conditions are very dangerous right now because it was so warm in march but now it winter again the alps. a number of deaths this weekend. i hope the school did not condone the off slope activities and the recjless kids went in their own
by Anonymous | reply 10 | April 22, 2024 1:20 PM |
The article failed to answer a key question: did she get into a good college?
by Anonymous | reply 11 | April 22, 2024 1:38 PM |
Darling, don’t you just hate when that happens?!
by Anonymous | reply 12 | April 22, 2024 2:47 PM |
How is a body split in two from an avalanche? This is a serious question.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | April 22, 2024 3:07 PM |
r13 Lots of sharp icicles? Or just big pieces of ice?
by Anonymous | reply 14 | April 22, 2024 3:11 PM |
I'm going to start offering free space shuttle rides to Mars- just to thin the population.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | April 22, 2024 3:26 PM |
She was getting a bit long in the tooth anyway.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | April 22, 2024 3:31 PM |
R13 she must crushed against a cliff with a 600 foot drop—a meat grinder
by Anonymous | reply 17 | April 22, 2024 3:42 PM |
Any comment from Heidi? Grandfather? Peter?
by Anonymous | reply 18 | April 22, 2024 3:44 PM |
Thin the herd
by Anonymous | reply 20 | April 22, 2024 3:48 PM |
True it's a dangerous sport but the two guides are being investigated all the same. One of them made a serious mistake in taking his young group down an alternate route.
Having said that, studies show the more experienced and skilled you are in skiing and avalanche risk detection the MORE risks you take.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | April 22, 2024 3:49 PM |
Ok I read the article. The school is explicitly designed to facilitate students doing backcountry activities in the ALPS. She was on this excursion with a teacher and experienced guide. I'm sure the school has parents sign waivers about accidents. The parents and the daughter knew what the girl was going to be doing at this school. They shouldn't have let her go if they couldn't accept some risks. The father is on ski patrol at Vail so understands risks.
All that said, as I mentioned above, the last two weeks have been very dangerous in the Swiss Alps and there have been many deaths. By abundance of caution, the school should have kept those kids out of the mountaineering activities for the moment, as teenagers are too young to really assess these risks. The school should have assessed it for them.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | April 22, 2024 3:55 PM |
R21 yes I agree. It sounds like the school does have some responsibility in this.
There has been too much fresh snow over the ice sheets that formed out of the wet snow pack in March.
I can see adults taking the risk if they have a suicide wish but teenagers should not be off the slopes. It's going to get warm again this weekend.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | April 22, 2024 3:58 PM |
These are the two descents taken. The pink area is the 'avalanche slab'. It was known to be the more dangerous route. The mystery is why the guide didn't take the 1st, safer descent.
by Anonymous | reply 24 | April 22, 2024 4:14 PM |
Some people it seems don't understand this happened in 2022. Not this past month.
by Anonymous | reply 25 | April 22, 2024 4:29 PM |
R25 The article was published this month and mentions a year has passed since the incident.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | April 22, 2024 4:34 PM |
R24 they did take the first route, on their first run. They didn’t actually know about the slab, did they?—until it was too late.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | April 22, 2024 4:46 PM |
Ah ok my bad I thought it was this month.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | April 22, 2024 4:47 PM |
R27 The guide stuck his ski pole in the snow and said the second route was okay. This is not enough to assess avalanche risk and he should have taken the higher route that had already been traversed without incident to be safe.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | April 22, 2024 4:50 PM |
I did some back country skiing in college in Gaspe. You can find videos of it on YouTube. One Hundred percent less chanllegning than this but you'll get the point. As a fully competent adult I don't do it anymore.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | April 22, 2024 4:54 PM |
by Anonymous | reply 31 | April 22, 2024 5:10 PM |
Isn’t that the whole point of off-piste? Fresh tracks? They’d already skied one route, now try another.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | April 22, 2024 5:34 PM |
I always hate when that happens when I’m at Swiss boarding school
by Anonymous | reply 33 | April 22, 2024 5:42 PM |
Me too!
by Anonymous | reply 34 | April 22, 2024 5:45 PM |
The headline made me gasp. My cousin is going to school in Switzerland and is a mountaineer and back country skier.
My dad was a ski patrol director and I grew up skiing and did some backcountry in my day. It’s exhilarating. Like the poster above said, one goal is making fresh tracks so it’s understandable why they took a different route. It’s always a risk even with current weather forecasts and detailed preparations.
I feel for the guides. You do your best out there and have done your best and nothing has ever happened. And then one day Mother Nature does her thing.
At least for 18 years this young woman lived a charmed life—better than most. That’s the only positive in this ordeal.
She had 800 people at her memorial. I’d be lucky to have 6!
by Anonymous | reply 35 | April 22, 2024 5:52 PM |
R30 is Gaspe an exclusive mountain resort I've never heard of?
by Anonymous | reply 36 | April 22, 2024 6:14 PM |
If you have to ask, dahling…. 💅🏼
by Anonymous | reply 37 | April 22, 2024 7:20 PM |
If I even think about skiing my collarbone snaps instantly
by Anonymous | reply 38 | April 22, 2024 7:21 PM |
A death that only the privileged could experience.
by Anonymous | reply 39 | April 22, 2024 9:31 PM |
Gaspésie?
by Anonymous | reply 40 | April 22, 2024 9:33 PM |
The Gaspé Peninsula is in Canada, not Switzerland.
by Anonymous | reply 42 | April 22, 2024 11:26 PM |
No shit, Shirley.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | April 23, 2024 12:26 AM |
And I was confused because I only know it in french, Gaspésie.
by Anonymous | reply 44 | April 23, 2024 12:31 AM |