Archive for avalanche
refuge de la Dent Parrachée [souvenir]
Posted in Books, Mountains, Running with tags Aussois, avalanche, Dent Parrachée, Le Monde, O'Bayes03, refuge, ski touring, Vanoise on August 23, 2026 by xi'an
Back to Aussois, back to Vanoise!
Posted in Mountains, pictures, Running with tags 13 April 2013, Aussois, avalanche, CAES, CNRS, Dent Parrachée, Grande Aiguille Rousse, guided climb, John Muir, Le Dauphiné Libéré, Maurienne, Modane, O'Bayes03, Savoie, ski accident, ski touring, Vanoise on December 3, 2025 by xi'an
So wonderful to be back in Aussois, 20 years later! Same place, same reason, namely a meeting with young statisticians. (Plus the call of the mountains!) And same guide, Baptiste Damevin, as well! Who in the meanwhile got into a mountain accident the very same day I had my climbing accident, albeit a much more serious one since he was swept by an avalanche on the Dent Parrachée—Éric and I climbed with him in 2003—while ski touring, falling down more than 500m and surviving multiple fractures! Five other alpine touring skiers got caught as well, three of whom died. Baptiste did recover from injuries that should have left him permanently incapacitated and resumed his guiding and mountaineering activities. Kudos!!
Fortunately, he was available for a day hike and he took us (Julyan, Guillaume and I) to the Grand Aiguille Rousse (3482m) on a favourable (sunny and decently cold) day. While the hike was reasonably easy, with mostly hard snow, I was still tired from my earlier marathonian efforts and decided to turn back at 3000m before the steepest bits, in order to let the others get to and enjoy the summit. And return back to the car before dark.
deaths on Mont Maudit (and bad graph)
Posted in Mountains, Statistics, Travel with tags avalanche, barplot, BayesComp, Chamonix, computational statistics, Grandes Jorasses, ISBA, MCMSki, Mont Blanc, petition, The Guardian on July 14, 2012 by xi'an
A large avalanche on one of the most classical routes to the summit of Mont Blanc early yesterday morning alas caught several groups climbing towards Mont Blanc and most sadly killed nine of them, including the BMC former secretary Roger Payne. It was triggered by a sérac fall above the route, always a possibility in this area whose name says it all… At a very minor level, compared with those tragic deaths, let me point out that The Guardian reported on this tragic accident with the following “bad graph”, which apparently gives the number of deaths on each accident (month?) with no consideration for the time (first axis). In other words, the barplot is missing all the zeroes. (It also missed the group of two who died from exhaustion in the Jorasses last November…)
This is not the right post to elaborate on the announcement that the next MCM’ski conference will take place in Chamonix, presumably on January 6-8, 2014. I am currently waiting for a formal proposal from the conference bureau in Chamonix… Nor on the incoming creation of a computational Bayes (BayesComp) ISBA section [if enough ISBA members support this creation].
Two U of Toronto professors die on Denali
Posted in Mountains, Running, University life with tags Andrew Herzenberg, avalanche, Avner Magen, Denali, University of Toronto on June 28, 2010 by xi'an 
When looking for Radford Neal’s page in the CS department of U of T, I came upon this very sad item of news, namely that (climber and) Professor Avner Magen have been killed last month in an avalanche on Denali, along with Professor Andrew Herzenberg from the Faculty of Medicine at University Health Network. There is a donation site to support Avner’s family.
Avalanche on Ben Nevis
Posted in Mountains with tags avalanche, Ben Nevis, ice climbing on January 1, 2010 by xi'anT
wo climbers died on Ben Nevis yesterday when climbing in the area of Number 3 Gully. They were caught in a large avalanche there… (Another avalanche in Central Gully saw one broken leg.) This reminded me of the time when Ivan and I climbed this gully with guide Alan Kimber and when Alan started a small avalanche that hit the group of climbers behind us, without any consequence, thankfully. Scottish weather can be gruesome, even at very low altitudes… There is a good reason for Scotland to be the ice-climbing birthplace!
