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the alps breathtaking panoramic views magical snow covered peaks and a magnetic pull for tourists but there's a hidden danger here too avalanches each year around $100.00 people lose their lives in the mountains. and social divisions it's hard to imagine the devastating consequences of a natural disaster like an avalanche if you've never seen one happen on a force that i was completely by and my brother you know kind everyone knows the statistics of what happens in the 1st 15 minutes determines whether you survive and we as fact that climate change affect the dynamic oh. avalanche in

a fundamental way right now we think that in that short term let's say 20 years you might actually see a little bit more avalanches. in just seconds a peaceful snowy landscape can become a deadly catastrophe. avalanches destroy everything in their path and leave behind silence. across europe physicists engineers geologists statisticians historians and then draw logistics are studying these unique forces of nature to better understand and predict them. mountain guides rescue teams in avalanche warning services all rely on their research to save lives in the moment and in the future. because we never know exactly when an avalanche will occur but we do know that skiers snowboarders and hikers are often the cause. 90

percent of all avalanches are triggered by humans and in recent years researchers practitioners tourists and those living in the mountains have been facing yet another element of uncertainty the weather. is climate change impacting how avalanches are forms and when they occur. we spent an entire winter company with them on their search of how to regain control over the white death. of avalanches can travel at speeds of up to 300 kilometers an hour they tear down trees destroy houses vehicles even entire ski resorts and they cost lives. indigenous mountain dwellers used to believe they were caused by witchcraft it was impossible to comprehend that nature alone could be so destructive. today despite

understanding how avalanches form we still can't stop them. more people will lose their lives to avalanches this winter. davos in december. 'd the winters. port season in one of the alps most popular resorts has just begun. as the 1st tourists arrive switzerland's institute for snow an avalanche research known as s l f launches its latest project 'd engineer betty sylvia is examining the movement patterns of avalanches. and we have suspected chemical change affect the dynamic of avalanche in a fundamental way so what we already saw is that what we already know is climate change is increasing temperature temperature are increasing also in the snow cover and we know that their property of there is no change a lot when they come close to a degree and we expect more snow close to 0 degree

a lower altitude in future a time so i have any damage is going to produce a lot of worm avelox t.v. we called also wet the avalanche of anything which is a kind of out in a 2nd t.v. we know a few so we don't know much of this kind of avalanches. b.s.l. that has classified 5 types of avalanches one is a wet snow avalanche it starts with a slab of snow or loose no moving and often occurs without further triggering after rain or a short warm spell. it's caused by excess water in the top layer which weakens the lower layers of the snow pack 10 percent of all victims lose their lives to this type of avalanche. so obvious colleague alex on have vine and researches the formation about the engines and for the 1st time he's examining a potential link to climate change. what i'm specifically interested in to know how

climate is affecting evidence is how it's going to change the likelihood that avalanches will release and to notice you have to look into the snow cover and look at how the weather affects the living in the stuff we always have hypothesis that at the start of a new project or when we start to study something new. but you need those to prove them or disprove them and right now less than what we know is less than 0 doesn't necessarily mean less evidence. because less than 0 could be more unstable snow. so right now we think that in the short term let's say 20 years you might actually see a little bit more avalanches in the long term however as it really warms up i think war with jeff and i see less evidence.

in the swiss canton ballet the s l f test zone is some 500 kilometers from davos. automatic thermal cameras geo radars geophones and speedometers register every moment the recordings are regularly analyzed. the last interesting feature of the slope this avalanche observation field is primarily its length and these are long it's 1200 meters long it gives us the chance to observe major avalanches that week classes catastrophic. yahoo going in monitors and controls the tests as head of security he regularly checks the systems in the shelter. the bunker is designed to withstand being buried in a novel it's an ingenious system. very

severe will be observing the test zone throughout the winter in order to examine avalanches and their connection to changes in the climate. experiment can help very match to understand climate change so in the past there adams i'm sorry and since been only concentrated means that the movement of the avalanche without taking into account which snow was moving into the flow now we understood that the if we understand the link we do in days north and the movement of the avalanche of the. we have a voice of very hard part of the past all to understanding from some climate change an avalanche because we expect there is not quite the warming now so when we know the link between there's no core and avalanche we know what doesn't mean a world not from this of course for for the movement of the floor. the primary goal

of avalanche research is to understand up the inches so we can predict their occurrence and limit the damage they cause. even when not fatal avalanches can be disastrous and experiencing one can leave survivors traumatized a few years ago zoppot shunts was buried in an avalanche while out hiking in snowshoes and alexander graham has avalanche camp and she's learning how to react if it should happen again. and these think it's me or i need to know that you all have a shovel a probe and a vs device with you either by up or under and then we can get started like the cooks a frog and a quick question via phone or have any of you ever experienced an avalanche and i love you nick. savage raises her hand she's embarking on a 2 day intensive course an avalanche safety with the other members of the group. returning to the mountain hasn't been easy.

for me it's mine and i was visiting a studio with my brother and my dad around 10 years ago and we had been snowshoeing for a couple of days on one obstacle own the way back down we were hit by an avalanche all 3 of us were buried my brother managed to dig himself out and my dad he was partially buried i was completely buried with it it was my brother who dug me out and so yes i've been meaning to do an avalanche safety course ever since then living close to mom. what buried alive that day was a slab avalanche one of the most deadly avalanches responsible for 90 percent of all casualties all it takes is an uninterrupted layer of loose snow a slope that's at least 30 degrees and something to trigger the fault line. this

avalanche is around 50 meters wide and up to 200 meters long. the one that hit zob it was 180 meters wide and nearly 350 meters long. in the camp skiers and mountain tourists learn how to prepare for potential avalanche and what every winter sport enthusiasm should carry with them when exploring the mountain alexander luma starts by discussing materials. the proper equipment can save lives. to get somebody out of an avalanche you're going to need some good. to get the best shovel you can of makes a huge difference. nobody should venture into the mountains without a shovel a detector and a probe. the light metal rod helps locate victims very beneath the snow. that's here this is an old fashioned probe and it still works. out at least if you

want a sheet is something we don't have much time. for if you have a few tie this one fits into your rucksack and once removed and shaken it's ready to use immediately was the not for hand it's tough. that's. 90 percent of all avalanches are triggered by humans every winter sports enthusiasts need to be able to gauge whether a situation is safe and to know what to do if trouble strikes. there's no question that the risk of avalanches in the alps needs to be monitored closely. by joining forces regional teams hope to improve the warning systems spanning across europe's largest mountain range. the alps began to form over 130000000 years ago they now span 1200 kilometers across 7 different

countries. italy france switzerland pushed in stein germany austria and slovenia. in france is the tallest peak standing 4810 meters tall. some 13600000 people call the alps home every year 100000000 tourists descend on the world's largest ski area. despite boosting the local economy 100000000 tourists pose some major challenges when it comes to keeping residents seasonal workers and visitors safe. woody meyer is head of to rolls avalanche warning services every day he and his colleagues assess the snow conditions and identify potential hazard zones. meyer has also observed a change in snow quality and the types of avalanches forming. need

of interest on those 3 every winter is different from the last was when johnson converts in the only thing we know for sure is that rainfall has been increasing over the years. we've also observed an increase in the number of slab avalanches after multiple where a whole layer of snow slips away from the ground from the up your body. is creating a snow profile like a cross-section of the snow cover. he's proud of magnifying glass to help them identify the so-called weak layer in the snow. we have been in for we seem to have long periods of fine weather an autumn when it stays warm people wear t. shirts in october and november temperatures are in the mid twenty's and the ground doesn't freeze the borders on the 1st snow arrives in december around 30 to 40 centimeters walls on bloom ground snow is

a great insulator that's why i need to work so that 1st layer prevents the ground from freezing the surface area between the ground and snow is about 0 degrees it's damp classes if there's grass beneath it or the wet snow begins to slide off the grass ultimately leading to a slab avalanche and. he examines the snow conditions at different altitudes before raising the risk of an avalanche level one is low 5 is very high. the avalanche danger scale has been uniform across europe since 1993 so what has a movie maya discover it. how does he see the current situation in spots mountains . as it was hard to for the most interesting thing for me today was estimating where the rain for line was it's so important to know because the risk of an avalanche is much higher where it has rained been rain destroys the bonding between snow crystals i was with great the area below 1600 meters as risk level 3 which is

considerable because the snow cover is very wet but i need above 600 meters or there has been some new snow but not enough to class as critical i had rated risk level 2 which is moderate on still fits right. despite official risk levels many winter sports enthusiasts see no reason to stop skiing or snowboarding. and when an avalanche is triggered they are often the culprits. i see under the avalanche risk level is graded from one to 5 extremely high interesting only the risk level where most incidents occur is level 3 considerable level 3 years is used for around a 3rd of the days in the winter season you get 2 thirds of all accidents happen during level 3 warnings as shows and people underestimate the dangers of an avalanche will feel the shits and.

it's january alex i have mine and is accompanying 2 postgraduate students into the woods close to the institute. they want to examine how quickly a crack in the layers can spread. there's been a lot of snow this winter leaving perfect conditions for fast and back fads ph d. project. we're conducting an experiment on fracture propagation week a layer is always at the bottom. here you go. so we're going to saw into it and see how far it spreads til the end and i was right that with some ended. the so-called propagation saw test looks at how quickly a break in the snow cover spreads. to collect all the data he needs all that creates a snow profile snow is not simply

a physical state there are 17 types of snow and no 2 snowflakes are the same. fresh now has a branched crystal structure that slowly disappears it becomes old snow which melts as soon as temperatures rise becoming wet snow. a snow profile is important to understand how the snow cover is constructed and that depends on the weather if the snow cover keeps changing every time it snows a new layer is created essentially the snow cover told the story of winter this is snow from the start of the season and this is yesterday snow climate has a huge impact on the weather if the climate is changing then our weather will change too and that in turn has an impact on the structure of the snow covered either just a. final preparations. bastiaan marks the snow with

a die so that the fracture will be visible. in stars cameras to record the experiment in slow motion. when you can start sawing though. the lower lower. the fracture along the length of the week layer of snow can be seen clearly after just a few seconds of song. it have mechanics but i haven't ever done an experiment long enough to see the full extent of the break and in my. hopefully this time we'll be able to see a quick break at the start which then continues to spread at a constant speed when these cats are splattered on bats and most of the experiment needs to be long enough to observe a steady breaks beat by the cats i hope we've captured it this time you see how.

late january for days now it's been snowing in davos and further east in the alps the lips are closed and the highest hazard warning has been issued. 22 people have already lost their lives to avalanches in switzerland and austria. there's been a powder snow avalanche this happens when a slab avalanche falls down a large slope and snow mixes with their. counter avalanches occur when the risk levels high and can travel at speeds of up to 300 kilometers an hour. other paths to the institute for snow and avalanche research are still being cleared alec and his post graduate students set out. with the small devices help the researchers work out the speed at which avalanches

form along the fracture line. castration for us it's all about how the break in the snow cover spreads and that's a wide ranging scale of tens or hundreds of meters which makes it difficult to test them but that's why we have these accelerations senses we throw them into the field and the reverberation triggers a break in the week layer that spreads from opposition members if it works the senses will record everything and we can work out the spread speed using the to. times and position is lost but in space when the coverage that gives a sleazy experiments are designed to give us a better understanding of how a break in the snow cover spreads and the break is the crucial part without a break the avalanche wouldn't happen. the researchers next step is to trigger an avalanche on flat ground. the devices they toss out contain acceleration sensors. they jump around to create vibrations.

that was good that is it was a good one for god as the whole slope just vibrated so we must have destroyed the weak layer beneath us causing the break to spread across the area here now we need to determine the characteristics of the snow cover and measure the exact position at each point if it is create a snow profile and this device here will take exact measurements of the snow cover . to survive in the mountains it's vital that the writers snowshoers and cross-country skiers learn to assess the snow cover. nature gives us clues as to whether there's a risk of an avalanche and again 90 percent of all avalanches are triggered by

humans oleksandr loma is training the group to interpret conditions accurately out of my comp look at the expose their ears they start how steep the slope is finished as anything ring alarm bells. there are the. moments that we know that this direction is roughly south so these eastern slopes bad news according to the avalanche reporter and there are a lot of stones and rocks visible so the slope must be steep probably over 40 degrees to the 3rd it's been pretty windy too judging by the size of the snow cornices up there. the priority of it. for me today is way too much drift snow that to look at those cornices on. cornices are layers of densely packed snow that spell out danger on slopes prone to avalanches alexander training courses aim to lower the number of people who fall victim to avalanches. knowing

how to respond in an emergency could be the difference between life and death. participants learn how to use a thin metal rod doan's a probe to find buried victims. for this exercise one member of the group has volunteered to be buried beneath the snow. what does it feel like. the color tell it's cold and everything sounds muffled i can't begin to imagine what it would feel like if all this snow was on top of me as it was terrifying of the force of it's ok like this but it must feel like you incased in cement one comp and if someone. with approach you know that help is on the way out i would be frightened that the space you have to breathe would collapse around into the system deal of fear we're going to use the probe to practice digging someone out later if he had some sluiced an asteroid will be lying here and you're going to attempt to

get around to under one side you'll start from the other side out there because this would be where the avalanche has occurred let's all be timing you and i promise none of you will feel the cold at the end of this exit. it's. the 1st things a bit learns is to differentiate between hitting something hard or finding a person beneath the snow. i think this is a case of practice makes perfect body you need to practice to get quicker and more confident finding much of it's bringing back some difficult memories for me and. a catastrophic avalanche until all in austria also brings back painful memories of the village of god to us. on february 23rd 1990 4 pm a $400.00 metre wide slab of snow broke away from the tour only in ski resort as it crashed down the mountain towards the village it's split multiple times destroying

houses and burying over 50 people. here you have i was doing avalanche reports that and it hadn't been snowing nonstop for 3 weeks at bible and i knew that if it didn't stop it would cause problems and we could expect some major avalanches and of course in every major avalanches need a lot of snow and in just kept coming in were no committal i knew exactly what happened and that was the worst part is that they're feeling so helpless and how are less because you simply can't stop it and that's when i and the roads were already closed as they were covered in snow from previous avalanches so we couldn't evacuate people as of the snowflakes were the size of sources as i was no way a helicopter could have got out there but there was nothing we could do that it's and i felt like i was waiting for something to happen and then unfortunately at the office here.

it was right it was horrifying you have to see it to believe it if you've never witnessed an avalanche it's high. to understand how destructive a natural disaster can be and the damage it can do foerster. 31 people lost their lives that day miraculously 19 of those buried survive. plus when i say need a fire inside burma some things are definitely improved since then and soul of danger zones have been expanded meaning there are more areas that can't be built on one or only using special measures like think awards and tougher glazing was the how but the main improvement has been how we manage avalanche warnings it's gone so nowadays we can issue them much much sooner than for you know for vonage. every day

roody meyer checks the snow conditions when it comes to determining hazard levels austria's alpine regions work closely with italy game. yet it's the 1st collaboration of its kind worldwide across border multi-lingual avalanche report black hole southern to roll and trentino with a set of milestones we have one of the best systems in the world at the moment reeks. with. winter sports enthusiasts often across national borders in pursuit of their hobby they don't care which country they're in it's the snow that counts. this is the 1st season avalanche reports are available online in a choice of languages. international avalanche warning services meet every 2 years to discuss whether any changes need to be made to the risk scale.

it's a february an emergency exercise for to rolls mountain rescue team. these dogs are being trained to find people buried in an avalanche. you see it's they're still in training so the goal for the dogs is to find pull victims without our help so. over 61 avalanche and rescue dog teams work for to roles mountain rescue. 15 minutes that's the magic number around 60 to 90 percent of those buried in an avalanche make it out alive in the 1st 15 minutes after that things look bleak or. airspace can extend chances up to 90 minutes after 2 and a half hours the chance of survival is slim. as a view of my we're usually called out once an avalanche has happened and it takes time

to scramble a helicopter and get the rescue chain moving one thing forget not their option even in the best case scenario it takes about 20 minutes before we are on site with the dogs for all the time can and when you need a kind and every one of the 15 minute window that's central to survival as you were leaving one by the time we arrive with the dogs it's often too late to fate which is why a volunteer basis rescue teams are essential to come all night them from virginia through. the dogs finally tune sense of smell make them perfect but locating avalanche victims but it takes a lot of training and regular practice. to roles mountain rescue team has structure plans for their canine teams. as well as areas to say this is phase one an open hole. the dogs have to locate their handlers people

so obviously from the front the handlers take group boards with them like toys and the dogs need to find them independently it's what we call life and it has to be fun like a game so we don't put pressure. on the dogs. the next step for the dog is to learn how to take out their handler and a stranger. finally they head for the mountain. we always found we've chosen 2 dogs for this task it's by who that should be enough it was the size of this search area and we have to assume that no other dogs are available at the moment. although the 1st 15 minutes are critical long before mountain rescue teams arrive speed is still of the essence. the team trains regularly on emergency.

as minus the flood as it was a very realistic rehearsal in my opinion which this team was under stress all i could tell my mug and we created the drama deliberately soft both for the alpine police for this well as for the head of the rescue mission i thought i'd slide the but i think there was some good work out there on the avalanche field as mine especially by the dogs is on the. winter sports enthusiasts often hold their lives to the commitments and expertise of mountain rescue teams. very severe relies on the support of her colleagues for her research. her

postgraduate student the shi'a keyboards is examining avalanche force and global law city we have often been when it comes to the fast moving avalanches it's like the. a war i wouldn't start on for whom the faster you run into the world the more it hurts betterment in love even in its discount woman temperature avalanches are an interesting phenomenon to really get through that these speeds he would expect less falls off it up mesnick about the measurements we've taken don't confirm this it does this we're trying to work out why that is for students of history and a moment. phenomenon that scientists want to understand better using recordings from the test zone. adhesive even. this media was shot by a high speed camera installed on out 20 meter pylon and boundless yano way below

its record of the interaction between the avalanche and obstacles in its path for the next century and then peace obstacles measures speedily all the things low velocity temperature and density lisa with them better that. warm weather causes snow temperatures to rise snow becomes wetter and heavier leading to more force and slower avalanches. this increases the destructive power of the slipping snow masses. back to the rescue exercise an avalanche camp. yes i know how many of you are that 12345 it will be tight but the 5 of you

will have to manage your 6 member who is 6 feet beneath the snow somewhere that. alexander goma gives the group some final instructions they need to dig a. hone shape around the victim to pull her out so that they might ready i was didn't say on your marks go. even 5 rescuers struggle to dig out the victim in the crucial 15 minutes. ok poke a stop for a 2nd dive stop the clock. because you've been digging for 8 and a half minutes now and you've only noticed how uncoordinated you are you need coordination to work more efficiently aside. what looks like a great cardio workout can mean the difference between life and death.

finally the breakthrough. gets it's taken 5 people 15 minutes and 10 seconds to recover someone buried alive beneath the snow. another minute and the victim may not have been so lucky. how is that feeling about the whole experience. was the. mission damages i 37 well i didn't expect to experience which i was ok on overwhelming emotions of the disease one caught in yet. i was fine at the start but once this uncoordinated chaotic sense of panic spread i have seen with and rick interest and i had to really pull myself together. to focus off the cons and to get through it. and either does the atmospheric best. and. of writing feeling to

know someone's buried down there and refutes to know what it's like definitely more intense than i imagined him to see but as you must have to. in the words of the woody meyer theory is important but research ultimately serves just one purpose to save lives and to do that it's essential to understand the different types of avalanches in order to control them successfully. and there's one type that worries the head of to rolls warning services more than any other. glide snow avalanches the number of incidences on the rise. their cause not by one layer breaking away but the entire snow pack making them extremely dangerous even on short slopes they can gain incredible speeds and force high temperatures and

late autumn prevent the earth from freezing leaving the 1st snow to fall on warm ground snow acts as an insulator preventing the earth from freezing that creates the ideal sliding surface. this is ice be something these avalanches happen months till the end of winter right up until early may be. just an island these are the ones that can cover roads and buildings and endangered villages or that you're fighting a fire the hardest type of avalanche to control because they cannot be artificially triggered us is the explosions don't work if i threw an explosive in right then they would just create a hole and nothing else would happen as a subsequent avalanche because 2 hours later still 2 weeks 2 months or never a glide snow avalanche can't be triggered artificially by explosives callousness budi meyer and his colleagues are examining the consistency of an avalanche that almost reached the road to the village could type in

a worst case scenario the village would be completely cut off from the outside world. lemon and to soon as you spot the 1st signs so-called fish mouths where a break is appeared in the snow cover you know. so there's a high risk of a glide snow avalanche i mean if you need to stay off the slopes and make sure you're not beneath any brakes that makes sense. since a glide avalanche takes the entire snow pack with it digging through to the victims it buries takes much longer. often too long. to give the answer to your last 9 states and since there have been some tragic cases but some happy endings to so if you need to learn to handle some of the things you see on me think local man that's maybe marley schoolhouse. you always just become a lot of the camaraderie can help all time alone or with the dog with your family

of course but if you want will do for me limit then yeah you get not only don't know how we deal with it well we're never alone it seems we work as a team and sometimes just talking to the others after a rescue can help you process what's happening and what you've been through i think on. the avalanche camp is over. what have the participants learned. in schmidt's aside and being in the snow definitely comes with. him and but hopefully of course lately now if i may he receives his or her funeral and up i want to try and enjoy the next winter holiday instead of constantly learning time around.

at the institute for snow and avalanche research the scientists are making some of their 1st cautious forecasts for the years ahead. severe weather conditions are what worry alec most. actually that's what climate scenarios say is that although we will have more. more likely bigger snow storms or more intense snowstorms the time between the snow storms so that at the time where the weather is good well also lasts longer so will have longer dry periods between does not stop and it's exactly during those dry periods that is weak players for so if we actually have. and widespread we cry here also higher up in the mountains and then this big snowstorm ben result could have been even more catastrophic.

but he said be it considers rising temperatures as a threat. level that was that if i don't use that as a victory if we've seen a lot of light snow avalanches in ballet deal i see the back there. wendy's egg and i mean ebony but going to be dead is instead is you know then unusual because now hard to predict we don't really know what i mean it doesn't come. this winter too has cost more lives avalanches remain a threat. we now know that they were impacted by our changing climate. and it's these changes that posed tough new challenges for scientists in the foreseeable future.

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