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2025 Archive Index - All Editions

7,000 foot avalanche on Revelstoke's Mount Cartier

A seismic avalanche likely couldn't have ground to a halt at a better spot just south of Revelstoke Wednesday afternoon, after plowing 7,000 vertical feet down Mount Cartier to terminate right at the edges of Airport Way. No people or property have been reported harmed. Photos show a dense white slide of snow, at some points roughly 50 metres wide and 10 metres deep, frozen in time after reportedly descending the 8,560-foot mountain's west-facing Greenslide gully the afternoon of March 26.

Numerous small trees lie uprooted and flattened on the fringes of Revelstoke's southernmost road, with a boulder-like snowbank accumulated several metres high along stretches. Despite sparing nearby communities of damage or road delays, this avalanche brings a rude awakening close to home at a time of year when snow along the Columbia River and surrounding treeline areas has largely melted. The Greenslide avalanche path is one of southern B.C.'s largest, stretching three kilometres between Mount Cartier's peak and the river.
Source ... (Revelstoke Review)

Kachina Peaks Avalanche Center celebrates 20 years

If I recall correctly from a poster session at a past conference this center is entirely community based with no investment of federal funds or resources. They produce information as-needed (i.e. not every day during periods of no change in danger).

Snow came late to the San Francisco Peaks this year. Although Snowbowl has been open for business since early November, it has been reliant on snow manufactured from reclaimed wastewater to provide open slopes for skiers and snowboarders. Outside the resort, it wasn’t until two storms swept across Flagstaff in the first two weeks of March that enough snow accumulated for backcountry travel.
Source ... (Arizona Daily Sun)

Snow Leopard Triggers Avalanche

Incredible wildlife sighting out of Hemis National Park in northern India of a snow leopard triggering an avalanche. The park is home to more than 200 snow leopards who thrive in it’s high altitude terrain. Known as the “ghost of the mountains” snow leopards live in some of the harshest places on earth where they blend into their surroundings thanks to their gray and white fur spotted with large black rosettes which acts as perfect natural camouflage rendering them virtually invisible to the untrained eye. To see one out in the wild incredibly rare and privileged. To see one triggering an avalanche is beyond lucky.

The video was taken following a blizzard that buried the region in a deep powder snow. A group of tourists lead by Voygr Expeditions spotted the elusive big cat trudging through the unstable snowpack on a steep mountainside deep in the Himalayas. If you watch closely you can see the snow leopard react to the slide almost before it happens, turning around on a dime as the slightest hint of a fracture appears.
Source ... (Unofficial Networks)

Glide avalanches: Field monitoring tackles unknowns

In a glide avalanche, the entire snowpack slides on a substratum such as grass or slabs of rock. Such avalanches are always released naturally. This requires the snow on the ground to become moist. In winter, this happens from below, when residual heat from summer is still stored in the ground. In spring, by contrast, the moistening takes place from above, as meltwater and rain seep through the snowpack to the ground. Often, but not always, gaps known as glide cracks form in the snow before the avalanche is triggered. These serve as an early warning signal.

"We've gained new insights into the key processes involved in triggering a gliding avalanche," says Amelie Fees, a scientist at the SLF in Davos. Fees has conducted a study on the conditions required on the ground and in the snow for a gliding avalanche to occur. This involved measuring the liquid water content and temperature of the ground over three winters. The long-term goal is to develop appropriate rules to enable more timely warnings of glide avalanches. Unlike other types of avalanches, the processes involved in gliding avalanches have not yet been extensively researched, making it difficult to predict when they will occur. Fees's work, now published in The Cryosphere, is helping to change that.
Source ... (Phys.org)

Four caught in Teton avalanche, no injuries

JACKSON, Wyo. — Four people were caught and carried in an avalanche on the Spoon couloir near Disappointment Peak in the Teton range on Tuesday, April 1. Four riders were partially buried after climbing up the couloir in very steep, wind-loaded terrain. “The avalanche broke at the top of the feature where the slope rolls over and becomes steep,” BTAC writes. “Crown depths ranged from 8 inches to 2.5 feet. No critical injuries reported.” Jenny Lake Rangers responded to the incident but the group was able to self-rescue.
Source ... (Buckrail)