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K2 avalanche threatens to engulf climbers tents (Video)

Watching this tense video (link to Instagram video in article) is a real “Will it? Won’t it?” nail biter. It captures the moment when an avalanche caused by a serac splitting off above the camp of a team of K2 climbers causes an avalanche that threatens to engulf their tents.

The team includes Italian climbers Federico Secchi and Marco Majori, who spent the summer climbing Broad Peak (26,414ft) and K2 (the world’s second-highest mountain at 28,251ft) without supplemental oxygen. The plan was for them to summit each then ski down both in their entirety. They both managed that on Broad Peak, but bad weather meant only Secchi conquered K2 (at the very end of July) with Majori having to turn back frustratingly close to the peak. The ski descent was abandoned, even though Secchi had his skis with him.
More ... (Microsoft Start)

Predicting avalanches: Fracture characteristics in porous material

Even a single person in the snow can exert enough pressure on it to cause a buried weak layer of snow to collapse and the snow cover to slide away. The fundamental fracture properties that can lead to powerful slab avalanches are still largely unknown, but crucial in order to accurately predict when avalanches will occur. In the journal Nature Communications, researchers led by TU scientist Dr.-Ing. Philipp Rosendahl are now presenting an innovative method that enables the fracture toughness of weak snow layers to be measured in the field under controlled conditions.

"Our study was motivated by the latest advances in avalanche research, which were driven by new experimental and numerical studies. These provided us with new insights into the fundamental fracture process responsible for triggering the avalanche, known as anticracking in weak layers of snow," says Dr.-Ing. Philipp Rosendahl, group leader at the Center of Snow and Avalanche Research at the Institute of Structural Mechanics and Design in TU Darmstadt's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

"Despite this remarkable progress, the fundamental fracture mechanical properties of weak layers of snow remain largely unknown."
More ... (Phys Org)

Utah avalanche control project making solid headway

The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) Mt. Superior Remote Avalanche Control System (RACS) project reached a critical milestone, as final adjustments were made to the newly installed avalanche control towers on the ridgeline above SR-210. The project, which began in July, replaced the P-Ridge Howitzer with Wyssen Avalanche Towers, a remote-operated system designed to improve the efficiency and safety of avalanche mitigation efforts. Since the start of the project, there have been intermittent road closures and daily helicopter flights.
More ... (Town Lift)

Scottish ski instructor killed by avalanche while skiing in Argentina

Sept 4: A Scottish ski instructor has died and two Argentine men suffered hypothermia on Wednesday after they were hit by an avalanche while skiing on Cerro López in Bariloche. One of the survivors was rescued and the body of the Scottish instructor recovered in the hours after the disaster. The missing man was found in the early hours of Thursday morning after clawing through the snow to make an emergency call. The trio were mountain skiing together, according to Nahuel Campitelli, head of the Rescue Commission. “At around 5 p.m. they entered a very risky, very dangerous area, given the quantity of snow,” he said.

[Many more news stories on this can be found online by searching. It is not in our database at this time.]
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Avalanche dogs to the rescue (NZ)

LEE SLATER meets a trio of avalanche dog teams and discovers why their work is so rewarding to dogs, their handlers and the public. What started as a bluebird day at Treble Cone skifield in New Zealand has taken a bit of a turn. It’s suddenly icy and pitch black, leaving me disorientated and blinking wildly into a dark void. My heart races as panic sets in. I’ve been buried in the snow for less than a minute but it feels like a lifetime.

Not a moment too soon I hear snuffling above me, and within seconds the darkness gives way to a blue glow through the snow, then daylight and two reassuringly friendly faces. It’s Wizzid the avalanche dog and his master, Matt Gunn. Boy, am I glad to see you guys. And by the look on his panting, fluffy face, Wizzid is pretty happy to see me too. I’ve just been a crash-test dummy for avalanche rescue training – Wizzid passed the test and obviously didn’t eat his homework.

When it comes to surviving an avalanche, timing is everything. Your odds of making it out alive are about 90% if you get pulled out within 15 minutes, dropping to a bleak 37% after 35 minutes. Including avalanche dogs in a first-response team can mean the difference between rescuing someone and recovering a body.
More ... (The Press)