Avalanches cause the highest number of fatalities in the Alps, threatening many areas and facilities, as well as transport and communications infrastructure. An integral part of avalanche protection ...is risk communication and warning, which is within the domain of the avalanche service of the Slovenian Environmental Agency. As part of the ‘Crossrisk Project’, the ZRC SAZU Anton Melik Geographical Institute has prepared a ‘Snow Field Manual’ which will allow for the standardised collection of field data on snow, snow cover and avalanches. This data forms the basis for determining the current avalanche hazard level. The ‘Snow Card’ supplement, which is an integral part of the manual, contains a condensed view of the most important contents and also includes two forms (there are a total of 14 forms in the manual) for entering the snow cover cross-section data. It also includes instructions for preparing and performing cross-sections of snow cover and avalanche tests. All information is provided along with a clear explanation key. Finally, a description of typical avalanche problems and types of avalanche hazards follows. The full applicability of the Snow Field Manual and the Snow Card is achieved by entering the digital data of the cross-section and the avalanche test into the appropriate web application.
Snow season 2012/13 in SloveniaSlovenia is also among the countries which are endangered by avalanches. They cause on a yearly average 1–2 victims, mainly in the highlands. Once, the victims were ...mostly locals, but within the last decades, it is now predominantly mountaineers. To avoid avalanche accidents, prevention measurements are very important. Their consistent part is also the flashback of each snow season. Since there is no avalanche service in Slovenia - its annual task is also the preparation of such an overview, we decided do it within the frame of a project NH-WF/Natural Hazards without Frontiers. In this, between years 2012 and 2014, we regularly prepared and published an experimental local avalanche bulletin for Middle Karavanks (northern Slovenia). Along with the work on this bulletin, we realized, how important cooperation is between the different stakeholders within the field of avalanche protection. This edition is the first complete overview of avalanche events and incidents in the snow season – from a weather review, through all the overall characteristics of snow seasons and avalanche events, as well as a methodically unified analysis of all fatal incidents. We added, at the end, a reflection about the season, made by an avalanche practitioner and a short presentation of a NH-WF project.
In comparison to other disasters, snow avalanches endanger only a small part of surface of Slovenia, but they are problematic mostly because of their spatial and temporal unpredictability. Focusing ...on alpine landscape, the author studies the natural geographical characteristics of snow avalanches.
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