– The tourism industry must guide tourists to peaks and descents that are less dangerous, says Haaken M. Christensen. He is responsible for nature-based tourism in Innovation Norway. The peak tourist season has started for the season, and Christensen therefore wants to make this appeal to the tourism industry. Haaken Christensen in Innovation Norway asks the tourism industry to avoid sending tourists on challenging peak trips. Photo: Private – We believe that many people can have just as good skiing and just as good experiences driving on terrain that is considered safer and that is defined as not dangerous for avalanches. Those who absolutely have to climb more complex rock formations must know what they are doing, he says. He points out that it is important to know the dangers you are exposed to, and to have good knowledge of the avalanche warning. Ideally, he believes that those who want to go on more challenging summit tours should have local certified guides with them. Together with NVE’s avalanche warning varsom.no, Innovation Norway encourages the tourism industry to inform about the avalanche warning. Christensen says it is also important that the tourists are reminded that they must bring a spade, search rod and transmitter/receiver on the trip. 2,000 on a summit trip in one day The winter mountains in Lyngen, Lofoten and Sunnmøre attract ski enthusiasts in droves from home and abroad. According to calculations, on certain fine weather days in Lyngen in Nord-Troms, there may be over 2,000 individuals on the summit tour. But the Norwegian winter mountains can also be capricious. In the last ten years, more than 60 people have lost their lives in avalanches in Norway. The winter mountains in Sunnmøre are also popular destinations for ski tourists. Photo: Olaug Bjørneset / news Last winter, five people died in avalanches in our country. Four of these were foreign ski tourists. In April, three French ski tourists died in an avalanche in Lyngen, just over a week after a skier died in an avalanche on another mountain in Lyngen. Just before Easter, Lyngen municipality put in place an SMS solution to warn foreign ski tourists about the risk of avalanches. In Balsfjord, a party of five was swept away by an avalanche. Two were seriously injured, one of them life-threatening. They survived and could tell their story. – Destructive for tourism Christensen believes that the tourism industry must, to a far greater extent, direct tourists to peaks and descents where the risk is lower. – We do not have the opportunity to physically stop anyone. But we want as many people as possible to have a safe experience so that they come back to après-ski. Then it’s important that we tell them where it’s a good idea to go, what the snow conditions are like, and what the danger signs are that you need to be aware of, he says. Elisabeth Braathen runs the tourism company Lyngen Lodge in Nord-Troms. She accommodates many Norwegian and foreign ski tourists throughout the winter. Elisabeth Braathen in Lyngen Lodge is skeptical about Innovation Norway’s call. Photo: Lyngen Lodge Braathen is skeptical that the tourism industry should “decide” which mountains the ski tourists will be allowed to go to. – It sounds terribly sad. I think that will be very destructive to the growing tourism we have in Norway. What makes it attractive for both foreigners and Norwegians is to be able to use the wonderful, beautiful and raw nature we have, says Braathen. She believes that they should rather be involved in making arrangements so that those who are going out skiing gain knowledge about what is the right choice of route that day based on the degree of slope and the weather that has been there in the days before. Want to prevent Well over 40 per cent of avalanche accidents happen in Troms, statistics from NVE show. The many avalanche accidents also worry the Troms police district, which praises the initiative from Innovation Norway. – The police commend the initiative to focus on safe travel in the mountains. Prevention is the core of the police’s social mission. It includes what we do alone or in collaboration with others to, among other things, reduce unwanted incidents, which in this case is someone being caught in an avalanche, says police superintendent and business contact Merete Samuelsen. Visit Norway has recently launched Behind the picture, an international marketing campaign that also contains information about safer experiences on tour. But do all these accidents mean that the reputation of Norwegian mountains is in danger? Haaken Christensen in Innovation Norway does not think so. – The number of ski tourists has grown sharply. The number of fatal accidents has not grown as strongly. This does not mean that we should avoid practicing prevention. To say that the reputation is at risk is to take it seriously, but we must be careful to contribute to ensuring that as few people as possible die in the mountains, he concludes.
ttn-69
Innovation Norway asks the tourism industry to stop sending ski tourists to dangerous mountain peaks – news Troms and Finnmark
