Five skiers were killed in Norway on Monday, see the following:

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/s ... topstories

Tragic

This happened about an hours drive from my house. I was out taking pics of avalanches on Sunday the day before. We had a massive slab avalanche go off behind my house, the breakline was over a kilometer long. Everybody loves to rant on the internet about how dumb others were, and how they know best. I don't want to sound like them, but it is telling that it was a Chamonix guide and 4 Swiss skiers that were killed. They did not have any local advice, and I'm hoping they were not so arrogant as to not do a complete analysis of the snow layers.

This has been some of the worst snow conditions we have seen in several years. Many of my more radical friends who take bigger chances have been reporting a very limited choice in what routes to do this season. Then these poor people from mainland Europe show up and just go for it. There is always the random chance that an avalanche can get you even if you do a full risk analysis and everything checks out. But it's astounding to me that a group of people led by 2 guides could make such a obviously bad choice. I really feel for them because it was so unneccesary.

Being local or having local knowledge doesn't always prevent less-than-optimal decision making, as was demonstrated here in Washington State, U.S. a couple of months ago.

http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB3/four-dead-in-slack-country-accidents-in-washington-t61369.html

It's sad that people neglect safety so readily these days, when we have had so many advances in equipment and knowledge that can help prevent this sort of accident.