Avalanche News - August 29, 2024
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Phase one of UDOT’s avalanche mitigation project complete
LITTLE COTTONWOOD CANYON – If you’ve been waiting to hike up Mount Superior, the wait is over. The Utah Department of Transportation lifted a closure in Little Cottonwood Canyon and announced that the first portion of their project to improve avalanche mitigation along SR 210 between Snowbird and Alta is complete. The project area closure was temporarily lifted on Sunday, August 11, at sunrise.
The final step in the project is to assemble the towers in the staging area (once they arrive) and fly them to each location. They’ll be using a specialized heavy lifting helicopter for that portion and expect a short-term project area closure in late August or early September for crews to install the towers. This is subject to helicopter availability, as they’re in high demand during fire season.
More ... (Town Lift)
More than 50 snowsheds will be built on the roads of Tajikistan
The Minister of Transport of Tajikistan, Azim Ibrohim, and the Senior Head of the Transport sector of the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD), Alexander Raschikov, discussed in Dushanbe the possibility of building anti-avalanche corridors (i.e. "snowsheds", or "galleries") on vulnerable sections of the republic's highways. According to the Ministry of Transport of the country, the parties discussed, in particular, the construction of 51 such corridors, with a total length of more than 5.2 thousand meters, to ensure road safety in winter.
More ... (AsiaPlus Tajikistan)
One climber dead, two critically injured, on Gasherbrum IV
AUG 19, GILGIT: Pakistan Army helicopters airlifted two stranded Russian climbers on Gasherbrum IV (7,925m) a day after an avalanche hit a group of five mountaineers who were trying to scale the sixth-highest mountain in Pakistan alpine style. Out of the five, one was reportedly killed while two received injuries and awaited rescue in critical condition. Five Russian climbers Sergei Nilov, Mikhail Mironov, Alexy Bautin, Sergei Mironov and Evgenii Lablokov started their mission to ascend the peak on August 4. On Saturday, a snow avalanche hit the climbers in the morning at a height of 6,400 metres.
Mr Bautin told Dawn they were hit by an avalanche, which started at 7,000m. He said Sergei Nilov lost his life whereas Mikhail Mironov and Sergei Mironov were injured, adding that he was in touch with his colleagues through satellite phone. According to Mr Bautin, his stranded comrades, though in a stable condition, needed immediate rescue. Helicopters couldn’t be operated on Sunday after the first sortie – which rescued the two climbers – due to poor weather conditions at the mountain. The climbers were stranded at an altitude of over 6,400m and helicopters could not land or hover in that area.
More ... (Dawn)
AUG 21 GILGIT: Two Russian climbers were rescued from Gasherbrum IV on Tuesday after remaining stranded at an altitude of 6,400 metres for over three days. A five-member rescue team successfully managed to bring down the climbers to the advance base camp at a height of 6,000m on Tuesday. The Army Aviation helicopters are expected to airlift the climbers to Skardu today (Wednesday). (Dawn, again)
[More updates on the rescue and outcome can be found online, here we are including only the news related to the fact that there was a fatal avalanche.]
