Management of Snow Avalanche Risk in the Ski Areas of the Southern Carpathians-Romanian Carpathians - Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions: Southeastern Europe - page 104

2007 ; Bürki et al., 2005 ; Hudson, 2002 ; Lew et al., 2008 ). Winter sports entail a
series of investment as far as blue-printing, infrastructure and connected activities
are concerned and they are destined for a tourist segment that is willing to invest
time, money and physical effort.
This item becomes important through its affiliation to the global concern regard-
ing the relationship between tourist practices, especially skiing, and natural risk
within mountain areas, in the present case (Casale and Margottini, 2004 ; Herwijnen
and Jamieson, 2007 ; Quinn and Phillips, 2000 ; Schweizer and Camponovo, 2001 ;
Schweizer and Jamieson, 2001 ; Schweizer and Lütschg, 2001 ).
Snow avalanches are one of the most important natural risks and hazards
of the mountain environment in ski areas and cause each year several fatalities
(Höller, 2007 ; Jamieson and Stethem, 2002 ; Keiler, 2004 ; Keiler et al., 2005 ;
Voiculescu, 2009 ) and serious damages upon human settlements and infrastructures
(de Scally, 1994; Fuchs and Bründl, 2005 ; Fuchs et al., 2004 , 2005 ; Jamieson and
Stethem, 2002 ; Stethem et al., 2003 ; Voiculescu, 2009 ).
The purpose of this chapter is to present the state of the management of snow
avalanche risk in two of the most representative mountain areas of Southern
Carpathians, Bâlea ski area of the Fagaras massif and Sinaia ski area of the Bucegi
Mountains. These are known for their natural potential with regard to ski prac-
tices, but also for the high incidence of snow avalanches, some even triggered by
skiers.
10.2 General Facts of the Studied Area
The Fagaras Massif is situated in central Romania at the intersection of the 45 ◦
30 parallel with the 24 ◦ 30 meridian, within the Fagaras group from the Southern
Carpathians (Fig. 10.1 ).
They are also known as the Transylvanian Alps due to their high altitudes that
surpass 2,400-2,500 m (Modoveanu Peak-2,544 m, Negoiu Peak-2,535 m), their
massiveness, their sharp glacial crests, their inherited glacial landforms (cirques and
glacial valleys), but also due to their present periglacial processes of high spatial
dynamics. The Fagaras massif occupies over 1,500 m 2 and the alpine level, which
represents the basis for skiing activities, occupies around 438.5 km 2 , from which
148.8 km 2 is on the northern slope and 684.7 km 2 on the southern slope (Voiculescu,
2002 ). In the Fagaras massif, skiing takes place traditionally in the Bâlea glacial
area which includes the cirque and the glacial valley (Fig. 10.2 ). If until the 1989
Romanian Revolution, only the alpine skiing was practiced here, afterwards and
especially in the latest years the skiing activities have been extended towards snow-
boarding, heli-skiing and especially towards free-ride and free-style skiing; which
therefore complete the range of tourist activities practiced in the Fagaras Massif and
which pertain to the alternative forms of tourism according to Beedie and Hudson
( 2003 ), to Buckley ( 2006 ) and to Pomfret ( 2006 ).
It is the only area which apart from a good accommodation infrastructure has
also ski trails. These trails are neither contoured nor smoothed during summer and
during winter do not have buoys delineating their extent, nor do they have warning