The 2009 Zigana avalanche was an

avalanche An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, and earth ...

that occurred on 25 January at around 11:15 local time (09:15 UTC) on Mount Zigana,

Gümüşhane Province Gümüşhane Province ( tr, Gümüşhane ili ) is a province in northern Turkey, bordering Bayburt to the east, Trabzon to the north, Giresun and Erzincan to the west. It covers an area of 6,575 km2 and has a population of 129,618 in 2010. Th ...

in north-eastern

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. It struck a group of 17 hikers at a height of near the site of a small ski resort. The snow mass dragged the hikers about into a valley. Ten people were killed, one person was rescued with injuries and another one died in hospital while five others survived without injuries. Teams from civilian defense and other public administrations rushed to the scene for the rescue of the victims from a sports club in

Trabzon Trabzon (; Ancient Greek: Tραπεζοῦς (''Trapezous''), Ophitic Pontic Greek: Τραπεζούντα (''Trapezounta''); Georgian: ტრაპიზონი (''Trapizoni'')), historically known as Trebizond in English, is a city on the Bl ...

after local gendarmerie was notified of the incident. Also a team of AKUT, a voluntary disaster search and rescue organization, travelled from Trabzon to the location, to assess the situation and to offer any help and assistance necessary.

Nasuh Mahruki Ali Nasuh Mahruki (born 21 May 1968) is a professional mountain climber, writer, photographer and documentary film producer. An all-round outdoor sportsman, he climbed to the summit of Mount Everest and was the first ever Turkish person to climb ...

, the first Turkish

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...

summiter and the head of AKUT, said that "the accident was a walking group accident, not a mountain climbing accident. It is apparent that they hit the road without an avalanche test. It is very difficult for 16 to 17 people to remain under an avalanche."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zigana avalanche

Zing Zing or ZING may refer to: *Zing (model-checker), infrastructure for verification of concurrent software via model checking *Zing (punctuation) or irony punctuation, invented by English printer Henry Denham in the 1580s *Zing (quartet), the 2010 S ...

2009 natural disasters History of Gümüşhane Province January 2009 events in Asia Avalanches in Turkey 2009 disasters in Turkey

See also

References