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What can be better than standing on a mountain summit with the blue sky and sun above, 30 centimetres of untouched powder snow below, and the prospect of a 1500 metre descent ahead? Or stomping through a snow-covered forest, turning sport into a form of meditation? These are moments during when everything fades into oblivion: getting up early, the tiring ascent, the bitingly- cold wind and the wariness that unfortunately all too often needs to be adopted on avalanche-prone slopes. This is precisely why on average 100 people die in the mountains each winter. That cannot be prevented by either the avalanche warning service or the development of ever improved rescue products - risk remains. However, if you prepare for your tour meticulously, the risk of getting buried can be reduced to a minimum.
The most important instrument in tour planning is the reduction method for risk assessment as established by Werner Munter, Swiss mountain guide and avalanche researcher. The reduction method has the aim of reducing the avalanche risk on a tour. Based on the prevailing potential danger, described by the scale used for the European Avalanche Bulletin (for instance, “moderate”), the risk is reduced in that, when walking or skiing, you make sure you avoid a certain degree of slope steepness and exposure. As a result of years of analysis of accidents, snow profiles and avalanche bulletins, Werner Munter has been able to assign numbers to the degree of danger and also the avoidance factors (so-called reduction factors), so that risk reduction can be established by means of a simple calculation using numbers.
The reduction method does not prevent all accidents. This analytical method is intended to enhance and not to replace classic assessments. If you have a bad feeling, then you should not attempt to negotiate a slope even if you get a “yes” from the reduction method. Conversely, there are solid arguments to walk or ski a slope despite a “no” from the reduction method.
On the basis of the impulse given by the classic reduction method, in practice the most varied simplifications have been developed.The reduction method described here relies on the elementary reduction method of Werner Munter, but has been further developed, among others, by Swiss alpine instructors and mountain guides Emanuel Wassermann and Michael Wicky (www.bergpunkt.ch). The method takes into consideration the fact that not all slope exposures are equally dangerous and that cautious behaviour minimizes risk. So the scope of the elementary reduction method defined by Werner Munter has been widened, without the risk being essentially increased.
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