OFF PISTE SKIING IN FRANCE

Recent evolution.Avalanches accidents -Forest preservation1

Francois VALLA2

Abstract: off piste ski, in France, is a type ofski practiced in "wild snow" out of the ski runsof the ski areas. We examin the avalancheaccidents for the period 1971-1986, and itevolution. Another sharp problem, in the Alps, isthe negative competition between skiel~ andforest. We present the french program of publicinformation.

I N T ROD U C T ION .

Among the winter leisure activities, practicedin France, snow sports are the most popular. Thereare different types of ski, according to theterrain and the equipement.

We have four major ski activities :

1) alpine ski, using with ski lifts in tke skiareas. In France, there is about 450 skiareas, with 100 major places like Val d'Isere,Tignes, or Chamonix. Ski lifts equipement is veryimportant, with 3 000 lifts. The number of skiersis over five millions, and the number of skiingdays about 50 millions. Security and rescue areassumed by the ski area.

2) nordic ski or cross-contry ski, practiced onwell prepared runs. This sport is very popularsince 1968, the date of the Grenoble Olympicgames. About 3 millions of skiers are consuming 25millions of days. Security and rescue is assumedby the ski areas.

3) mountain ski, praticed in the montain rangesand on the glaciers, with a special equipement(skins, bindings for climbing... ).There is lessthan half a million skiers, with about 5 millionsof days. People is skiing at t.heir own risks, andrescues are assumed by the French National RescueOrganisation.

4) off piste ski, practiced with ski lifts,inthe neigbourhood of the ski area, in the "wildsnow", with alpine equipement. Presently, it isknown that off piste ski is, in number of skiers

1Paper presented at the International Snow Science

Workshop, Lake Tahoe, California, October, 22-25,1986.

2Francois VALLA, Dr. es Sciences Physiques, Snow,

Avalanches, Glaciers Division,C.E.M.A.G.R.E.F.,BP 76, 38 102, Saint. Martin d'Heres, F RAN C E .

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and days, about 5% of alpine ski. We may accept anumber of half a million skiers, with 3 millionsof days. People is skiing at their own risks, andthe rescues are generally assumed, with expenses,by the ski area.

This paper presents some datas, concerning offpiste skiing in France: first regarding theavalanche accidents during the last 15 years,second in connection with the forest.

I - OFF PIST SKI IN FRANCE.

This practice of skiing is each year more andmore popular in Europe, especially in France, andthis for about 20 years.At this fact, we may foundthree main raisons :

-the ski areas are often overcrowded,-the skiers want more freedom, and alpine ski

is too much regulated and organised,-in the same time, the technical level of theskiers is each day better and the equipementis constantly being improved.

Regarding this ski, France is in a leaderposition. A great number of the major ski areashave just the good slopes and exposures for thissport. In Switzerland and Italy off piste skiing isalso an not negligible componant of the "skiindustry". We have, in France, a great number offoreigner skiers.

For this type of ski, the responsability of theski area is engaged only for the transportation onthe ski lifts. The slopes where the ski ispracticed are out of the securized areas, andnobody is looking for the security. It isespecielly true when snow conditions arehazardous, and avalanche control hardly used forthe ski runs protection. Thus, after an avalanchecondition period, the ski runs are open. Theaccess on the unskied slopes is possible, but thesnow stabillt.y is very poor; after such periods,we note often several accidents.

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Figure 3. Evolution 1971-1986 , in France, of thepercentage of deaths in off piste ski related atthe total number of dead victims by avalanches.

III - OFF PISTE SKIING AND FOREST PRESERVATION.

For about ten years, we have in France a newphenomenum skiing in the forest produces realdamages on the youg trees. And now, we can observein the most skied places, a really poorregeneration injuried by the ski edges, smalltrees, especially the conifers, are no more ableto grow normally, and they produce a "bonzai".

In France, we pay attention at this fact and wehave engaged ,for about ten years, some actions.

On the terrain.Some experimental places are

controlled by foresters, and the damages arecounted. The most significant damages arecutting of the terminal bud, scrapping of thebark, breaking of the branchs .... We have todistinguish the f['ench northern Alps, hum ide anddeeply covered by firs and spruces, and the dry,suny and clear covered mountain of the southernAlps, with larches and many types of pines.

Information campaign.In the same time, we

have planed a large information program, forscholars (our skiers of the future ... ), and adults.The most important realisations are

1) a 16 pages color pamphlet mailed and distributedat 170 000 copies. It is out of print for themoment.

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Figure 4. Sticker "We want to grow", and warningpanel in four cou10rs.

MINISTERE DE L'AGRICULTURE • A N EN A

Figure 5. Humoristic sticker, the point of' viewof a young fire . ..

2) 4 color warning panels (50 by 50 ems), put inthe most sensitives places. About I 100 pieces areon the spot., and we are printing 1 000 more panels.

3) stickers for tean agel's. One is the warningpanel (figure 4), and the second is ~n humoristicpoint of view ofthe young tree (figure 5 ). About20 000 copies.

II - AVALANCHE ACCIDENTS IN OFF PISTE SKIING.

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Figure 2. Evolution, in France, of the deathsby avalanches, in off piste skiing. 1971-1986.

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Figure 2 shows, for the last 15 years (1971­1986) in France, the number of people dead byavalanche in the practice of off piste skiing. Wehave a total of 161 deaths, with an average of 11victims. The major fact we note is the presence of"hot winter", wi th a large number of deaths (1972­73, 75-76, 81-82, and 84-85 with 29 victims).Thispoints are more or less on a right line, andcuriosly , the winters with few accidents are on aline roughfly parallel. Without contest, we havean important increase of the rate of mortalaccidents, during the last decade, connected withthe mountain ski traffic.

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Today, avalanche accidents are important in theAlps. Each year, more than hundert people iskilled in those accidents (an average of 121 forthe decade 1975-1985, with a maximum of 180 in 84­85). Figure 1 shows the number of deaths duringthe last 10 years (1975-1986), for the 5 countriesmaking the Alpes (France, Switzerland, Italy,Austria and Germany) and for each type of activity(montagn ski, off piste ski, alpine ski, alpinism,roads and access, houses and miscellanous).

We note that France is in the first position(351 victims, 29% of the total number of deaths),and off piste ski is the second activity regardingthe amount of dead victims (25%), after themountagne ski (48%).

F FRANCE 351 deaths, 48% of the total (Alps)S SUISSE 324 deaths, 27% of the total (Alps)I ITALY 248 deaths, 20% of the total (Alps)A AUSTRIA 256 deaths, 21% of the total (Alps)D GERMANY 31 deaths, 3% of the total (Alps)

1 MOUNTAIN SKI 583 deaths, 48% of the total2 OFF PISTE SKI 301 deaths, 25% of the total3 ALPINE SKI 36 deaths, 3% of the total4 ALP1NISM 120 deaths, 10% of the total6 HOUSES 38 deaths, 3% of the total7 MISCELLANOUS 45 deaths, 4% of the total

DECADE 1975-1985, TOTAL NUMBER OF DEATHS : 1210

For the avalanche accidents, the winter seasonsare very contrasted; if we want to have an idea ofthe evolution of the security regarding theavalanches, in off piste ski, we have to lookfigure 3. This figure shows the evolution of theratio number of deaths by avalanches in offpiste skiing / number total of deaths. We notethat the average percentage of killed in off pisteskiing is about 40% (of the total deaths) for thelast 8 years. We cannot reveal a clear tendancyfor the futuro This is because the number ofavalanche accidents is strongly in relation withthe ski traffic; with a "poor winter", badweather does not allow busy skiing days, and wehave few avalanche accidents. With sun and a lot.of fresh snow, skiers are innumerable, avalancheconditions are optimum, and we have moreaccidents.

Anyhow, as we have an increase of thepopularity of the snow sport, we have an increaseof the number of avalanche accidents.

Figure 1. Number of victims killed by al'a1anche,during the decade 1975-1985, in the Alps.

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6) a color fold-out page, with the drawings of theexhibition, in 50 000 copies. A poster version willbe available.

4) an exhibition of 9 panels (0.80 by· 1.20 ems)with color drawings, giving the main explanationsfor this problem. At the moment in 6 examplars,and 5 more are in preparation in a smaller size(0.50 by 0.70 ems).

5) a slide set of 40 color pictures, for thescholars. In this document, we present the mountainforest, the snow action, the ski damages anrt whatwe can do if we want to have a nice forest in acentury ... This set is under creation, and will beprinted at I 500 exemplars.

Tahoesame

This exhibition was presented at the LakeWorkshop. (see the poster session paper by theauthor) .

The encouraging results of this campaign, showthat France should continue in this way. Ifeveryone take care of our forester patrimony, ourchildren or grandchildren ... will have theopportunity to enjoy the beauty of the forest.

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