06 September 2003

Two British skiers were amongst those lucky to escape a large avalanche on the ski slopes of Mt Ruapehu in New Zealand yesterday.

Andrew and Tracy Norris were beginning a three month tour of New Zealand, starting their travels by doing some skiing at the resort of Turoa. Situated on the North Island, the ski runs decend the slopes of volcanic Mt Ruapehu, recently featured in the Lord of the Rings movies as "Mount Doom".

Newspapers in New Zealand report that the avalanche was sparked by Turoa ski patrollers setting off controlled avalanches to clear unstable snow high on the mountain.

What should have been a minor blast went wrong and the whole snow pack came down with a fracture line "hundreds of metres across" according to Mr Norris.

The time was about 1pm and the Norris' heard whoops and hollers from the nearby chairlift which they took to be excitable Kiwis watching other skiers & boarders. However, they soon became screams and Andrew saw the avalanche bearing down on them.

They are both good skiers having working in ski resorts and when Andrew shouted to Tracy "avalanche" they skied as fast as they could away from the line of the avalanche.

Amazingly none of the 1100 people on the slopes were injured as the avalanche surged 4km down the mountain.

Turoa Ski Resort spokeswoman Anna Yeates said avalanches were being deliberately set off to remove unstable snow high on the mountain to avoid uncontrolled avalanches.

"Avalanche control work goes on all the time we use bombs to ensure unpredictable avalanches don't happen."

It was good luck that the avalanche moved slowly and the visibility was clear so people could see it coming and get out of the way, Miss Yeates said.

"It was the first time an avalanche has come down in the ski area - it was a freak accident. Everyone has been accounted for and no facilities have been damaged."

Nine ski patrol members and two police officers spent several hours combing the area with avalanche dogs and infrared equipment to make sure no one had been buried. Helicopters were placed on standby in case they were needed for a rescue.

As for the Norris' they were angry with the resort management - they perceived that the ski patrollers made a mistake that could have been fatal. Still, when ifyouski spoke to them, they were about to set off for another day's skiing.

[Source: ifyouski.com]

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