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Avalanche videos part 17

January 24th, 2017

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Some new slides mixed with new finds from previous seasons. First time also featuring some local footage.

Probably intentional storm slab release by Taos avalanche center in New Mexico

Mt. Saint Helens ski cut

Jonny & Ben Adler in a Vermont forest

Tom Oye with one of the first electric fan airbag deployments in action at Chocolate Bowl, Whistler

Darrell Miller filming with the Storm Show Studios

Skiers on Mt. Minamidake in Japan Caught in a Series of Wet Snow Avalanches

Unknown on Red Bull TV

Crystal Point Wet slide @ Solitude

Wet Slab Avalanche, North face of hatch peak. April 2013.

Sled triggered slab at Guardsmans Pass

Wet avalanche on Senggchuppa (3607m) north-est face, Switzerland

Hohes Bret, 21.4.2012, avalanche footage from around 4:50

Fieberbrunn, March 2015, footage from 1:30

Local section

Jani Hercog on Peca – Trebnikov žleb (a few seconds from ~0:27)

More local footage, location unknown, avalanche comes towards the end at 2min in.

Breaking the one at a time rule, unknown location, 2010

Stopped before he even realized he was in a slide

Bine Žalohar (on Vogel probably) filmed by the late Jure Breceljnik

Avalanche videos pt.16

December 22nd, 2016

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New season, new slides. Some from the southern hemisphere, others from the archives but popping up as a reminder.

Raimundo de Andraca, SebastiÃ¡n Reyes & Borja Mir: Avalancha Zona central, July 12th in Chile

Henry Tof, ski cut @ Helbronner Petit Flambeau

Tanner Hall and buddies setting off avalanches all over this teaser

Nick McNutt filming with TGR outruns an avalanche. I’m always hesitant to post videos where someone escapes a slide, like that would be a totally normal and expected outcome.

Greg Hill and his 5 rules starts with a large avalanche

MSNBC does a very simplified “How to escape an avalanche” feature

Andrea Binning in BC, the slide that made the cover of Staying Alive In Avalanche Terrain by Bruce Tremper.

Eric Frigon, ski cutting a soft slab in Calamity couloir on Lipallian (South aspect), Alberta, Canada.

Sledders in Revelstoke, 2015 season

Nick Dorotik ends up on top after setting off a small slab in Colorado somewhere

Snowboarder cutting a slope at 3300m on Deda-Ena (Gudauri, Georgia) on 19.11.2016

Travis Rice broke a few bones in this big slide while filming The Fourth Phase

End of the season wrap up. As far as avalanche safety is concerned it seems to have been a relatively good winter. Glad to report avalanche deaths in the Alps were substantially lower (61+) compared to the previous season (137+). US (27) and Canadian (16) winter was average in that statistic however with 0 (skier) fatalities in Colorado. That apparently hasn’t happened in a long time. Or as Karl Birkenland of National Avalanche Center points out: U.S. Avalanche Deaths Remain Steady in Past 22 Years Despite Explosion in Backcountry Use.

Assuming a conservative estimate of use increasing 8 times and combining it with our flat fatality trend means our fatality rate (avalanche fatalities per backcountry user day) has dropped dramatically. In fact, this suggests that our fatality rate has dropped by at least a factor of 8 (and probably more) over the past 22 years.

To the best of my knowledge there have been 0 fatalities in Slovenia this winter but that’s far less uncommon (despite the same type of increase in backcountry use experienced elsewhere). But more importantly for Slovenia, end of the season was also the start for the new and improved avalanche bulletin. And there’s some more exciting things coming out in the next few years.

Moving on to the videos collected since February:

Tanner Hall, setting off more than a few avalanches in this video