A piste too far

An avalanche

Following deadly avalanches in Italy over the weekend it is expected legislation will be quickly unveiled there to target those who ignore safety warnings and enter areas marked as unsafe.

Eight peope died this weekend, with some of these killed in areas deemed unsafe, with the rescue people saving 10 others who were hurt.

The new laws are likely to be in place before the end of this skiing season, range from fines (always with the revenue) or possible jail terms and are touted as deterrents to irresponsible off-piste activity.

This all sounds well and good but surely there will be a huge financial incentive to hand out fines of Eur5,000? Of course actually enforcing the rules will be a bit tough, although the deaths of the weekend seem to be mostly people in their 50s walking, so perhaps the politicians have noted these people aern’t those likely to ski off.

Whilst I realise the rescue teams burn fuel etc and run up costs flying around in their helicopters, surely they are paid a salary and their very raison d’etre is to save people, a job they have chosen to do – and one which government must have already allocated monies for. By essentially making this service pay as you go I can’t help feeling this is a very slippery slope towards exclusivity and away from socialised responsibility as well as charging twice for it.

Also the concept of “too far” off-piste is open to interpretation, so this will be interesting to see how this plays out, for example if a relative gets killed will you get the bill?

On a related tip a 25 year old man was pulled out of an avalanche in Monetier on Sunday, an off duty monitor spotted the fall and got to him in time. He’s fine now, so that’s nice.

France still respects your freedom to get yourself killed in the manner you see fit – here mostly the pisteurs will try and get you if you’re off piste – at their own risk – but there will be a bill, usually paid by the insurance, which is why it’s a good idea.

I reckon humans have enough intelligence to decide how much risk they want to take. It’s better to act responsibly than to have the government pass an act confining your actions, the more we abrogate our powers the more government will take up the slack.

Choose life, the balance is you must live it. (How deep is that?)