When my family had a house in Olympic Valley, we knew some folks on the avalanche prevention crew. They were dedicated to their jobs. They'd go lay charges and mortar cornices and just below the cornice and you would always hear the dull booms of the charges going off during early mornings after heavy snow. And sometimes they would close…
When my family had a house in Olympic Valley, we knew some folks on the avalanche prevention crew. They were dedicated to their jobs. They'd go lay charges and mortar cornices and just below the cornice and you would always hear the dull booms of the charges going off during early mornings after heavy snow. And sometimes they would close off runs because of avalanche risk until they could address the issue. However, I got to imagine that avalanche prevention is an art, not a hard science. And I'm surprised that someone got killed on the western side of KT-22, which is a much broader bowl and has more places to escape than the eastern side, which has some death chutes.
I think that is part of the problem with a wind slab or a persistent layer, it ends up being a pretty wide avi, cutting off escape routes. I am not nearly as knowledgeable as the experts, but that is my understanding. It also makes you wonder how they failed to trigger it if it was such a weak and wide slab. If they detonated in the area, seems like it would have triggered pretty readily.
When my family had a house in Olympic Valley, we knew some folks on the avalanche prevention crew. They were dedicated to their jobs. They'd go lay charges and mortar cornices and just below the cornice and you would always hear the dull booms of the charges going off during early mornings after heavy snow. And sometimes they would close off runs because of avalanche risk until they could address the issue. However, I got to imagine that avalanche prevention is an art, not a hard science. And I'm surprised that someone got killed on the western side of KT-22, which is a much broader bowl and has more places to escape than the eastern side, which has some death chutes.
I think that is part of the problem with a wind slab or a persistent layer, it ends up being a pretty wide avi, cutting off escape routes. I am not nearly as knowledgeable as the experts, but that is my understanding. It also makes you wonder how they failed to trigger it if it was such a weak and wide slab. If they detonated in the area, seems like it would have triggered pretty readily.