| 00.01-00.10 | Voiceover | It’s been snowing for the last 48 hours. Like his colleagues from the St. Anton Avalanche Commission, Walter Strolz has had enough of the snow.
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| 00.11-00.29 | Original Soundtrack Walter Strolz | C’mere Sepp, come on! Sepp, what do you think of the situation in Gand? Between Gser and Gand?
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| 00.30-01.11 | Voiceover | Walter Strolz and his men closed off the approach roads at 6am. The Avalanche Commmission is solely responsible for the safety of the region, its inhabitants and visitors. There are currently around 10,000 of them. They are in a prison of snow, cut off from the outside world. But most of the ‘prisoners’ have not yet noticed it. Neither have we.
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| 01.12-2.30 | Voiceover | In St. Anton, the kindergardens are open around the clock. Usually, there’s a five-hour break to clear of the pistes. Not today. The locals try to protect their village from the snow. It snows here every year but this snowfall is heaviest in seven years. Parts of St Jacob and St Christoph can no longer be reached by foot. Only the railway can get here. Since 1886, the most powerful tourist train has crossed this route. Every year, up to one million visitors toss and turn in twelve thousand beds. This Thursday there’s almost eight thousand guests. In two days many of them will have to go back home. At least as many want to come here for holiday. But the idyll is gone; instead there’s chaos. The men from the Avalanche Commissionare are in the thick of it. Too much caution threatens the proceeds; so does too little. Last winter, Walter Strolz spent 120 days in action. Weather data of the entire skiing region are being processed in the cellar of his house. A computer performs the analysis. The computer is Walter Strolz’s friend, but one without a sixth sense.
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| 02.31-03.21 | Original Soundtrack Walter Strolz | We’ve got two wind readers here, positioned at a distance of 3-4 m from each other. The whole thing’ll get a bit more problematic later on. This one is a mechanical wind reader. The snow sticks on to it. It freezes. It’s too sluggish then. It reacts to the wind too slowly so as to speak; particularly to the gusts. And you can see quite clearly here on the diagram and even better that the two wind readers differ considerably from each other. That’s how reliable measurement data is. You can hardly do anything with the measured data in situations like this. It’s therefore a question of the experience of the people that are out there. For me, that’s definitely far, far more important than any computer, certainly in this case.
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| 03.21 | Voiceover | The opinion of their colleague is more important to the avalanche rescue team than the forecast of electronic devices. The circa 20 men know their mountains but nevertheless they can never be sure of the weather. Despite that, they have to go. At -17C and with wind speeds of up to 140km/h. The community of St. Anton cannot afford a ski lift. On a day like this, it costs 140,000DM to operate it. The mission is clear: to disperse an avalanche as quickly and extensively as possible.
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| 03.55-04.20 | Original soundtrack The Avalanche Detonator | The equipment consists of a few loads of gelatine donaride explosives. We’ll use it to try and trigger the avalanche. That’s about it. We throw it in by hand, if there’s no other possibility. You tie it to the end of a string. If the load’s a dud, then you can pull it back out.
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| 04.21-04.24 | Original Soundtrack Interviewer | Is there any sense in detonating avalanches when the snowfall is so heavy?
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| 04.25-04.41 | Original soundtrack The Avalanche Detonator | Yes, there’s a lot of sense in it. Seeing that further snowfall has been forecast, we’ve got to avoid the avalanches getting too big. That’s why we detonate them in certain intervals, as far up as we can get.
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| 04.43 | Original Soundtrack Interviewer
| Okay - get in! |
| 04.44-5.21 | Voiceover | Data: 1,6 meter of new snow. Individual snowdrifts reach up to 6 meters. One can hardly see anything; the visibility reaches no more than 20 meters. Feelings: a mix of respect, duty, daring and routine. Results: 2-3 snow dispersions and just the realization that today most of the 150km of pistes will remain snowed over. It is also hard to predict what will happen in the next few days in these conditions.
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| 05.22 | Original Soundtrack Interviewer | What can you do on a day like today, when it snows without interruption?
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| 05.26-05.37 | Original Soundtrack Walter Strolz | The best thing you can do is to sit in a cafe and have fun or visit the skiing museum, something like that. Of course, the possibilities are fairly restricted.
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| 5.37 | Voiceover | Walter Strolz is aware that nothing can make up for this weather.
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| 05.44-05.51 | Original Soundtrack Female Tourist | I’ve been here for twenty years. I’ve had all the weather there is to see. But not being able to ski ‘cos there’s too much snow, that’s a novelty!
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| 05.53 | Original Soundtrack Male Tourist | It’s the event of the century.
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| 05.55 | Original Soundtrack Walter Strolz | It happens here every year a couple of times.
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| 05.57 | Original Soundtrack Male Tourist | I’ve never experienced anything like it.
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| 06.01 | Original Soundtrack Male Tourist | Have you encountered the Yeti yet?
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| 06.04 | Original Soundtrack Walter Strolz | I’ve seen the Yeti, he was well fed.
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| 06.05-06.10 | Original Soundtrack Male Tourist | As long as our landlady still had enough fruit schnapps and some food, it’s all the same to us isn’t it?
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| 06.11-07.34 | Voiceover | 50 crates is the usual ration for a comfortable holiday day. A discussion about snow or pork chops seems absurd to visitors; fantasies about the Tyrol yeti spring from the abundance of fruit schnapps.
In fairness, most are quite happy that there’s no rush to do anything. There’s no lack of a sense of humour, nor alcohol.
It is still early afternoon. The avalanche commission discusses the current situation. The weather forecast promises no snow and better visibility. The experience of these professionals tells them that slab avalanches must now be dispersed.
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| 07.35-07.53 | Original Soundtrack Walter Strolz | The last big happening was in 1988. That was a really catastrophic situation back then. Horrendous snowfall in an extremely short period of time. The situation was considerably more critical then than it is now.
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| 07.54 | Original Soundtrack Interviewer | Were you affected by it as well?
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| 07.56-08.07 | Original Soundtrack Walter Strolz | Yes, we sure were affected by it. I lost my mother in that avalanche back then and my parents’ home was damaged.
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| 08.08-09.04
09.04-09.08 | Voiceover | One hour later. The weather forecast becomes a reality. After 75 hours of snowfall, there’s clear visibility on the peaks. The layer of snow reaches up to 3 meters here and endangers the pistes below the mountain ridge. The solution are propane gas cannons with a power comparable to 25kg of TNT. The us of gas cannons is 100% secure.
Walter Strolz is relieved. Almost the whole slab is gone.
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| 09.09-09.19 | Original Soundtrack Walter Strolz | That’s a typical dust avalanche. It only happens with extremely loose and cold snow. If the proportion of air in the snow is very large.
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| 09.21 | Original Soundtrack Interviewer | What’s so special about it, what makes it dangerous?
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| 09.24-09.49 | Original Soundtrack Walter Strolz | It’s the range and the pressure in the avalanche that make it dangerous. You see, if you get caught by it, you get literally stuffed by snow. The snow is therefore very, very fine. That forces the snow through the zipper and through everything else. That’s snow’s just so fine and the pressures are so great.
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| 09.50- | Voiceover | In the lower regions, the cannons give the starting signal.
But this 'people - avalanche' first goes up and then down.
The last courses in the afternoon sun. This is the time for the helicopter to take off. The tourists from the cut off Lech-Zuers area have been flying back home throughout the day. Now the entire mountain range will be freed from the snow. The pilots are experts in ‘shooting’ the snow; they are carrying over 30kg of explosives.
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| 10.57-11.02 | Original Soundtrack Walter Strolz | Fire a shot about 20 m to the right, down into the shadowy gap.
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| 11.30-12.51 | Original Soundtrack Walter Strolz | That’s a bit more, but not yet really exciting. So many factors play a part in it all. A drop in the temperature alone does perhaps make it essentially safer in the short term, but it’s not an advantage in the long run. Here she comes! That’ll be a huge avalanche. Watch out now! She’ll be coming down that side too. Take a look at that, would you! Take a look at that avalanche! Look what’s happening. That’s a force to be reckoned with! Will you take a look at that baby! Right over the entire Schindelkar. Take a look at it! Take a look at what’s coming down. That’s the biggest baby I’ve seen. Incredible! Take a look at it! You can hardly imagine it. She’s coming down from there. But we’re safe.
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| 13.04 | Original Soundtrack Walter Strolz
| Here comes the second now, do you see?
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| 13.13 | Original Soundtrack Walter Strolz | About time I put my glasses on.
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| 13.30 | Voiceover | Today the mountain rescuers won’t have to look for people burried by avalanches. They have taken the force away from nature. This is when avalanches are fun.
The following day they face the same goal. The highest areas are still inaccessible. It is not 100% safe. Walter Strolz will never suppose he has mastered nature. He has known the pistes of the Albert mountains for 47 years, and has been trying to prevent misfortune for 18 years.
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| 15.15 | Voiceover | Fun without limits. At 9 already a fourth person – a show-off – is tempting fate on a closed-off piste. 2 hours later, hundreds of skiers have provoked their guardian angel. This time they got lucky.
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| 15.33-15.49 | Original Soundtrack Walter Strolz | I get the impression that people are thinking less about the risks. The folks were all brought up to let the other people take the responsibility for them. I think that that plays an essential role. Taking responsibility for yourself is becoming rarer and rarer.
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| 15.50 | Original Soundtrack Interviewer | So the avalanche commission has the responsibility in this case?
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| 15.53-15.57 | Original Soundtrack Walter Strolz | That’s what they think. For example, we’ve got no responsibility over there.
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| 16.00 | Original Soundtrack Interviewer | And what if something happens over there?
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| 16.01-16.07 | Original Soundtrack Walter Strolz | The piste is closed, it’s shut down today; and if something happens over there, well, it’ll be bad luck.
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| 16.08- | Voiceover | There’s no scorn or resignation in his words; only his experience. It is immeasurable – like people’s lives and like avalanches.
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| 17.36 |
| Walter Strolz in the outdoors, alone on a dangerous piste. He must check if the piste is fit for skiers. He's been doing it without fear since he was 18 years old.
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| 18.00-18.26 | Original Soundtrack Avalanche Commissioner | The avalanche commission goes up the moutain every day, especially on such a beautiful, clear day as today. We go out to check the skiing conditions every day. There are daily protocols, daily decisions. That’s why it’s like an all-clear for us when the last snow has fallen and the last lift of the season has closed. That’s when we can say - the winter’s passed, thank God, without trouble.
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| 18.27 | Voiceover | The chains restraining the violent avalanches falling from the top of St Anton from damage were fitted too late for some.
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| 18.33-18.47 | Original Soundtrack Walter Strolz | A huge avalanche came down in 1988. With considerable consequences and damage. That’s why they put up the avalanche dam up there.
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| 18.48 | Original Soundtrack Interviewer | What path did the avalanche take?
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| 18.51-19.09 | Original Soundtrack Walter Strolz | If you look up there, the avalanche broke loose in the right hand area, on the right shoulder, rather beneath the right shoulder and thundered down through this lane it made for itself then. Then it spread over the entire valley and engulfed the houses.
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| 19.13 | Original Soundtrack interviewer | Was it foreseeable?
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| 19.15-19.23 | Original Soundtrack Walter Strolz | You can’t really foresee something that you’ve never experienced. People just live on the basis of their experiences and experiences like that just hadn’t existed before.
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| 19.25 | Original Soundtrack Interviewer | What meaning do avalanches have for you personally?
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| 19.28-19.49 | Original Soundtrack Walter Strolz | Essentially they mean a lot of hard work for me. Headaches. To a certain extent, they’re like a challenge. But I have to say that I’ve got boundless respect for nature and for avalanches. I’ve kept that since I was a child, despite the fact that I am constantly dealing with avalanches.
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| 19.52 | Voiceover | This road leads to a former house of his parents. In March 1988 he was also meant to be there. But because of a heavy snowfall, he stayed in Insbruck.
Not only people and avalanches, but also fates are unpredictable.
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