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2025 Archive Index - All Editions

Note: There are many serious incidents in the news, some will be added to the Incidents section of the web as soon as there is time. This includes one US fatality in Utah and several fatalities in the Alps, but there have also been some noteworthy serious but non-fatal incidents. None of these are included here.

Video shows avalanche right next to ski tourer

A French ski tourer used his cell phone to film the descent of an avalanche right next to his route. The avalanche was triggered by a ski tourer who was skiing down the slope above. The man was swept down around 300 meters by the avalanche. "We had exchanged a few words on the previous ascent," writes the alpinist filming. Fortunately, the airbag of the ski tourer caught up in the avalanche opened immediately. He was able to swim down the avalanche. The other ski tourers were then able to quickly locate the man and free him from the avalanche cone.
More ... (Bluewin)
Perhaps better: Mail Online

Two Decades of Railway Avalanche Safety

On Jan. 28, 2004, a freight train hauling 119 empty grain cars and three locomotives was traveling from Pasco, Wash. to Great Falls when two avalanches near Essex and Glacier National Park struck the Burlington Northern Sante Fe (BNSF) Railway twice within 15 minutes. The slides derailed the train, knocking 15 cars off the rails and resulted in the closure of the tracks. If the slides occurred 71 minutes later, the avalanches may have collided with Amtrak’s Empire Builder passenger train that uses the same route. In the aftermath, the railway was shut down for 29 hours amid unsafe avalanche conditions. As crews shoveled snow off the tracks and cleaned up the mess left over from the derailment, BNSF officials began formulating a plan to prevent more incidents like it from happening in the future.  

An additional note: The article mentions snowsheds now but when this program began the railroad protested loudly about having to foot that expense and tried to pressure the park service into mitigation with explosives or barriers. It sounds like they ultimately had to give in and build the sheds, which is a better solution.
More ... (Flathead Beacon)

Idaho 21 closed - ‘almost certain’ danger of avalanches

Weather conditions have forced officials to close two sections of state highway north of Boise. They remained closed as of Tuesday. The Idaho Transportation Department announced Friday that all lanes of Idaho 21 between Grandjean and Banner Summit (12 miles) were closed to traffic. The department then announced a second closure of 31 miles between milepost 41 two miles north of Idaho City and milepost 72 in Lowman. The Idaho Transportation Department had previously reopened this area briefly over the weekend but closed it again Sunday.
More ... (Idaho Statesman)