3rd March 2023
Up to 100 people per day are being admitted to one hospital in Grenoble, France, due to skiing accidents. People are urged to exercise caution on hardpacked and icy slopes. NEW
The rise is put down to hard packed and icy slopes after little recent snowfall and busy slopes.
It is compounded by the large numbers of people on the slopes in the recent busy February holiday period.
The Hôpital Sud de Grenoble in France is in a “catastrophic” situation, said head of the emergency department, Dr Jean-Jacques Banihachémi, to FranceInfo.
“We have between 80 and 100 patients a day,” said Dr Jean-Jacques Banihachémi.
“The problem concerns the reception of patients, the fact of being able to hospitalize them and especially to operate on them behind.
“For example, just on Sunday, we had to transfer to Lyon patients for fractures that required surgery,” Dr Banihachémi added.
Bare slopes in France. Image © PlanetSKI
He said that there is a rising number of femoral neck fractures among young people.
And it’s extremely serious, because these are relatively heavy surgeries.
“We also has a lot of knee fractures and leg fractures on the increase.
“As far as the upper limbs are concerned, shoulder and wrist fractures predominate.”
Megeve, France. Image © PlanetSKI
There has been no snow worth talking about for well over a month in parts of the north-west Alps , with generally high temperatures.
Across France it has been the driest winter for more than 60-years.
Météo-France said between January 21st and February 21st there had been no precipitation at all.
Not just in the Alps but across the whole of France.
PlanetSKI spent a day with the Verbier ski patrol in Switzerland earlier this winter.
We had good conditions at the time but the head of Piste Security, PV, told us “when there is not really enough snow people are not adapting their behaviour accordingly.
He went on to point out that “some skiers & snowboarders are simply going too fast for the conditions. My job is much easier when there is lots of snow and no rocks.”
Skiers and snowboarders are recommended to wear a helmet and be in good physical condition.
Most accidents happen towards the end of the day so people are advised to be aware of fatigue.
“You have to pay attention to your speed, it is a very important factor in the cause of accidents, said Dr Jean-Jacques Banihachémi from the The Hôpital Sud de Grenoble
“You have to know a minimum of the mountain code, how to ski and what priorities to give on the slopes.”
There is some snow in the forecast for the French Alps net week but in the meantime conditions remain hard-packed.
One of our reporters, Tim Clark, was in La Rosiere in France over half-term.
He described the pistes at time as ” hard as concrete” and in places the snow resembled a “kind of polished white porcelain.”
La Rosiere, France. Image © PlanetSKI
La Rosiere, France. Image © PlanetSKI
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This article was originally published by Planetski.eu. Read the original article here.
