HAT blog
Ortovox UK off piste awareness tour 2022
A new series of Henry’s Avalanche Talk (HAT) events is coming on tour this Autumn. A particular focus for 2022 will be to show how off-piste skiing and ski touring can be surprisingly safe when ‘the essentials’ are applied. However, it can be surprisingly dangerous if...
AVALANCHE SAFETY IN 15 MINUTES – A VIDEO
A new Henry's Avalanche Talk (HAT) off-piste and ski touring 'Essentials’ this Autumn: on tour and on line. Practical accident reduction points you can apply right now - see this video introduction to our 'Essentials Talk' 2022 . For everyone interested in off-piste...
Ski & Film Pioneer Dan Egan in the UK
My good friend, screamin' - extreme skiing - Dan Egan will be in the UK on tour for his new book: 30 Years in a White Haze. Events include Monday October 25th in Manchester and Wednesday October 27th in London. I met Dan in high school in Boston, USA where we raced...
WET SNOW AVALANCHES put into perspective
Very few avalanche deaths or accidents occur in wet snow conditions. "So we don't need to worry about wet snow avalanches at all?" you may well ask. The answer is "Yes we do"!! The tricky thing seems to be that even though there are more avalanches in wet snow...
ORTOVOX & HAT Virtual Tour: Talks and Webinars 2020-21 brief overview
This video gives a glimpse at how we adapted the ORTOVOX / HAT 2020-21 Tour of events to both the unique COVID situation, and to the dangerous, (in a number of countries, tragic) winter sports season. By October 2020, it had become clear that I would...
Rapid warming, rain and wet snow avalanches
A common misconception about avalanche accidents is that they’re mainly related to rising temperatures. When I ask people about when and where they think most avalanche accidents occur, they nearly always reply ‘In Spring, on South facing slopes’. It’s an...
Avalanche Rescue Val d’Isère Chemins des Côves ‘The Avalanche Path’ today: a quick written & video summary
4 people on snowshoes taken in a natural avalanche today around 13h. 3 partially buried - minor injuries. 1 person buried for over two hours; he was found miraculously alive. Chances of survival under snow drop below 50% after 30 mins, thus the importance of...
I trusted my intuition even when it was wrong
On this evening's webinar event, "Recent avalanche accidents, Are the victims unlucky? Or were the accidents predictable?" My heart is heavy with all the avalanche accidents and deaths over the last few days in the Northern French Alps and in parts of Switzerland not...