“The first in-depth studies of avalanche survival were published only 30 years ago and focused on incidents in the Swiss Alps. At that time, fewer than half of the people buried in avalanches survived, and almost all of those who did survive had been rescued within 15 minutes of burial.

Since the 1990s, though, we’ve developed more reliable ways to predict avalanches, as well as new technologies to improve people’s chances of being found and rescued quickly…

The new research shows that, since 1990, the overall avalanche survival rate in Switzerland has increased from 43.5% to 53.4% — that amounts to about 10 more people saved out of every 100 affected.”

From Live Science.