A New Zealand skier who was swept around 170 metres down a Norwegian mountainside in a wall of snow has spoken about the terrifying moment an avalanche tore through her group, calling the survival of all 13 people on the trip an extraordinary stroke of luck.
Hannah Hughes, 34, was on a guided ski and sail trip in the remote Lofoten region of northern Norway when the slope above her gave way. She was backcountry skiing in Trollfjorden on 4 March when the avalanche caught the entire party, burying some of them and carrying others a long way down the mountain.
“The main body of the avalanche hit me like a freight train. I got taken off my feet instantly,” Hughes told RNZ. She was buried up to her chest and tumbled close to 170 metres before the snow finally came to a stop, leaving her with a broken ankle and torn knee ligaments.
The group of 13 included 10 skiers, two mountain guides and the skipper of the boat they had been living on. According to the account given to RNZ, the avalanche caught all of them. Most were only partially buried, but two were buried completely, with one of them under more than a metre of snow for between 15 and 20 minutes. That skier was unconscious when the others dug him out, and was revived at the scene.
It is the kind of outcome that, in avalanche terrain, very easily goes the other way. Burial for that length of time, that deep, is frequently fatal, and the fact that the group got everyone out alive came down to fast, practised companion rescue rather than chance alone.
“We’re so insanely lucky that nobody died, that’s a testament to the people,” Hughes said.
The avalanche danger that day had been rated at level 3 on the five point international scale, the point at which forecasters describe the hazard as considerable and warn that human triggered slides are likely on many slopes. The party was being led by professional guides from a company that runs ski and sail expeditions in the region, and Hughes was clear that she did not second guess the decision to be on the mountain.
“The whole reason you pay guides is because they know the snow pack, the terrain and everything better than you,” she said.
In the aftermath the operator reviewed its procedures, and Hughes said satellite communication devices, which had not all been carried on the day, were now mandatory for everyone on the trips. In a place as remote as the Lofoten fjords, where a boat is the only way in or out and mobile coverage is patchy at best, the ability to call for help can be the difference between a rescue and a tragedy.
Hughes is recovering from her injuries back home, and her story has landed at a pointed moment for New Zealanders heading into their own winter. As the northern hemisphere season winds down, the Southern Alps are filling in, and thousands of skiers, snowboarders and climbers are about to push beyond the patrolled boundaries of the ski fields into uncontrolled backcountry terrain.
That terrain carries the same risks Hughes met in Norway. New Zealand averages around two or three avalanche deaths a year, almost all of them in the backcountry, and most involving people who triggered the slide that caught them. The conditions that produce slides here are no different in kind from those in the Arctic, a loaded slope, a weak layer buried in the snow pack, and a trigger, often a person, in the wrong place at the wrong time.
New Zealand does have a warning system built for exactly this. The New Zealand Avalanche Advisory, run by the Mountain Safety Council, publishes daily forecasts for 13 alpine regions, and this season it begins forecasting across all of them from 27 June. The advisory rates the hazard on the same five point scale that flagged level 3 in Trollfjorden, and the Mountain Safety Council and the Department of Conservation both urge anyone heading into avalanche country to check it before they go.
The advice that follows is consistent and, in light of what happened to Hughes and her group, hard to argue with. The Mountain Safety Council recommends formal avalanche training from a recognised provider, carrying a transceiver, probe and shovel, and crucially knowing how to use them, because rescue gear is only as good as the speed and skill of the people digging. The council has also released a 23 part video series walking backcountry users through how to read a forecast and apply it in the field.
What kept Hughes and her companions alive was not luck on its own. It was a group that carried the right gear, trained for the worst, and reacted fast enough to pull two buried people out of the snow before time ran out. Going into a New Zealand winter, that is the part of her story worth carrying up the mountain.
Have you skied or climbed in New Zealand’s backcountry, or had a close call in the snow? Share your experience and your safety advice in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job π
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