Russian Avalance

Didn't someone on here go heliboarding in Russia
last year? Was this anywhere near?

On March 8, at 09:45 (Moscow time) near the village of Vydrino at
the lakeside of Baikal (border of Irkutsk region and Buryatia) an
avalanche hit a group of foreign tourists, who were skating on
snowboards. As a REGNUM correspondent has been informed in press
office of the Russian Emergency Ministry, 19 tourists and two
Russian instructors were in the group. Six of them were hit by the
avalanche. Two died, a citizen if France and a citizen of
Switzerland. Bodies of the victims have already been found, wounded
have received medical treatment.

Rescue operation was conducted by Baikal Emergency Ministry search
and rescue service.

On Thu, 09 Mar 2006 00:33:46 -0000, "Mike M. Miskulin"
wrote:

Didn't someone on here go heliboarding in Russia
last year?

Yep, me and Switters, and occassional poster IainD

Was this anywhere near?

No, we were in the Caucaus mountains down near the Black Sea. My
russian geography isn't great, but I'm fairly sure Irkutsk is out in
the far east.

On March 8, at 09:45 (Moscow time) near the village of Vydrino at
the lakeside of Baikal (border of Irkutsk region and Buryatia) an
avalanche hit a group of foreign tourists, who were skating on
snowboards. As a REGNUM correspondent has been informed in press
office of the Russian Emergency Ministry, 19 tourists and two
Russian instructors were in the group. Six of them were hit by the
avalanche. Two died, a citizen if France and a citizen of
Switzerland. Bodies of the victims have already been found, wounded
have received medical treatment.

Rescue operation was conducted by Baikal Emergency Ministry search
and rescue service.

There's a number of small companies in western europe running trips to
Russia, now, so I guess this sort of thing is going to happen. My
experience in Russia was that the local guides we had were excellent,
and very safety aware. And the heli crew (big machines, with a crew
of 3!) could put that bird *anywhere*.
--
Champ