From 23 to 26 January, Carpathian Tourist Association and the Alpy4000 from Czech Republic, organized a trip to the Ukrainian Carpathians. Rescuers from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Polish presented to the Ukraine rescuers, the latest methods of finding people in the avalanche. During three days in a ski resort on Dragobrat in Svidovec mountains (1350-1704 m), two specialist: Viktor Kořízka from HS ČR (Czech Mountain Rescue) and Milan Lizuch from strediská lavinovej prevencie Jasna (Center of the Avalanche Prevetion in Jasna Slovakia), were sharing information about avalanches.
The main task of the visit, was to provide knowledge about: the type of avalanches, how to study snow structure, how can we find a man buried by an avalanche and how to behave in an avalanche while descending. In addition to rescue workers from the Ukraine were also invited members of the Association POHiD from Ternopil, who specialize in the winter ski trips, they could learn something about avalanches and how to give a help when somebody is buried in avalanche.
Czechs from the skialpine store Namche, gave Ukraine rescuers 6 pairs of ski-touring shoes and 6 pairs of ski-touring skins.
During the meeting the conditions were difficult in the mountains, strong wind, a large amount of solid snow (1.5 m-2 m), fresh snow (about 60 cm) and poor visibility, led to the rescue. Late in the afternoon on January 25, a skier had lost and skied in a dangerous area, where he slipped up with a small avalanche into the stream. Rescuers were informed about the incident by a frend of the victim. Thanks to the footsteps that they sought, they could get out him and transported to a safe place. 24-year-old boy was alive and had hypothermia – article in Ukrainian language
This winter season, under a small grant Visegrad Found „Avalanche prevention in the Ukrainian Carpathians – monitoring of the current situation „, together with partners from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, we will monitor avalanche area in Transcarpathian mountain and will try to design a functional system of forecasting avalanches. Details about the project soon in a tab – avalanche prevention and on www.karpaty.net
