Bodies of Tragic Skiers Uncovered in Wyoming, USA

Walker Pannell Kuhl and Gregory Seftick, two men in their late twenties and early thirties who had slung on their ski jacket cheerfully on Saturday April 16th, the last day they were seen alive, to embark upon a two-day skiing adventure, were reported missing the following Monday after Kuhl failed to turn up for work.

After an exhausting six-day search, hopes never fading that the pair would be found alive, the bodies of the two men were recovered from beneath 13 feet of snow at 9,000 feet in Garnet Canyon of Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming.

It is thought that an avalanche swept the men away and buried them while they were inside their tents and sleeping bags.

The bodies of the men were discovered after search teams' transceivers detected a signal being emitted by the one of the skiers' avalanche beacons. The searchers are now trying to establish why the signal was only detected late on Saturday, when they had been searching that debris field for two days.

The team were forced to retire before being able to uncover the bodies on Saturday as daylight was fading and the search helicopter's flying hours were limited by regulations, but the rangers flew back to the site on Sunday morning and the sad discovery was made.

The bodies of the men, an emergency room doctor and a US Treasury Department employee, were airlifted to a mortuary in Jackson, Wyoming to be met by their grieving relatives, some of whom were in the valley when the bodies were discovered.

Scottish Skiing Season to be Prolonged by Bubble Wrap

Skiing enthusiasts in the Cairngorms might be able to don their skiwear for an extra week or two next season, if Professor John McClatchey, a scientist working for the University of the Highland and Island's Environmental Research Institute, has his way.

As climate change is believed to have been leading Scotland's skiing season to progressively shorten year after year, climatologists such as Prof McClatchey have been scratching their heads over how to tackle this growing problem.

The wind, rain, and sun have been plaguing the bank balances of ski resort owners for a lengthy period of time since the conditions have been both blowing away and melting the snow prematurely and creating weak patches on the pistes, cutting the season short by an average of two more days each year.

As McClatchey has proved, sometimes the best ideas are the simplest. In an interview with BBC Radio Scotland he revealed that he had been testing out his theory that bubble wrap laid over areas of ski slopes could delay the snow's deterioration. "I used single coverings, double coverings and ones painted silver to increase the reflectivity of the material” he said, going on to state that ordinary and silver-painted coverings worked best in reducing the effects of the elements.

Ski resort managers will now be looking into the practicalities of McClatchey's recommendations and are hoping to utilise them so they can stretch their skiing seasons out by a further couple of weeks every year.