American student killed by avalanche while backcountry skiing at her Swiss boarding school

[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.

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.

[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.

Shwish avlansh?

On her iTunes:

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.

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.

death by affluence

FAFO

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

The article failed to answer a key question: did she get into a good college?

Darling, don’t you just hate when that happens?!

How is a body split in two from an avalanche? This is a serious question.

r13 Lots of sharp icicles? Or just big pieces of ice?

I'm going to start offering free space shuttle rides to Mars- just to thin the population.

She was getting a bit long in the tooth anyway.

R13 she must crushed against a cliff with a 600 foot drop—a meat grinder

Any comment from Heidi? Grandfather? Peter?

Ipod:

Thin the herd

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.

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.

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.

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.

Some people it seems don't understand this happened in 2022. Not this past month.

R25 The article was published this month and mentions a year has passed since the incident.

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.

Ah ok my bad I thought it was this month.

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.

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.

Isn’t that the whole point of off-piste? Fresh tracks? They’d already skied one route, now try another.

I always hate when that happens when I’m at Swiss boarding school

Me too!

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!

R30 is Gaspe an exclusive mountain resort I've never heard of?

If you have to ask, dahling…. 💅🏼

If I even think about skiing my collarbone snaps instantly

A death that only the privileged could experience.

Gaspésie?

Gaspé

The Gaspé Peninsula is in Canada, not Switzerland.

No shit, Shirley.

And I was confused because I only know it in french, Gaspésie.