Management of Snow Avalanche Risk in the Ski Areas of the Southern Carpathians-Romanian Carpathians - Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions: Southeastern Europe - page 114

Fig. 10.9 Number of fatalities in Fagaras massif, between 1968 and 2005
2001 ; Schweizer and Lütschg, 2001 ; Tremper, 2001 ). The statistics department of
the Mountain Rescuers from the Sibiu County registered the largest number of acci-
dents (Fig. 10.9 ) in the whole Carpathians over the course of time (Voiculescu,
2009 ). Here, in the Bâlea glacial cirque, on April 17, 1977 a huge snow avalanche
took place and killed 23 skiers. Also other accidents with fatalities and buried under
avalanches have been noted in the Bâlea glacial cirque and on the right side of the
Bâlea glacial valley (Fig. 10.10 ).
Within the Sinaia ski area the frequency of snow avalanches does not have the
intensity of the ones in the Fagaras massif. Nevertheless, due to the large number of
skiers, in the last 10 years and also due to the terrain and climatic factors which are
favourable for skiing, here accidents also occurred (Fig. 10.11 ) which determined
the local authorities to take some precaution measures.
According to topography and the new measures undertaken, especially after the
year 2003, we can consider two large categories of management of snow avalanche
risk. Thus, especially in the Bâlea ski area of the Fagaras massif where snow
avalanche activity is considerably high, we can identify the old, traditional forms
of management of snow avalanche risk. In this category we include snow sheds,
snowpack support structures, drainage systems and deflecting dikes as in other areas
affected by snow avalanches (Höller, 2007 , 2009 ; Jamieson and Stethem, 2002 ).
All these appeared in Fagaras massif at the same time with the construction of
Transfagarasan highway between 1970 and 1974 (Fig. 10.12 ), but also for the safety
of skiers.
In the Sinaia resort of the Bucegi Mountains the attention upon management of
snow avalanche risk was drawn quite recently, due to several accidents that took
place here. This mainly consists of delineating the ski trails by signs and marking
the difficulty degree on the already mentioned signs, but also of the implementa-
tion of snowpack structures where the occurrence of snow avalanche is imminent,
which are the most common and the most efficient form of avalanche preventions.
Also warning signs as the ones met in other mountain areas have been implemented
(Weir, 2002 ), which read “Danger of avalanches” or “Trail closed during winter”
(Fig. 10.13 ).