Land Shark

Remember the Saturday Night Live "Land Shark" skits in the wake of the "Jaws" movie hysteria?
You'd just be hanging out in your apartment, far away from the ocean, far away from danger, when in through your front door came:

Land Shark
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Well, here's the King Cove, Alaska equivalent, just hanging out in a warehouse (fortunately empty at the time), when in through the door comes:

Here are videos from two other security cameras:

Educational content?  Well, okay, this definitely falls into the "Godzilla vs. Various Manmade Infrastructure" category of "fun" avalanche videos.

Learning the Lesson of Vietnam

My father told me many stories about his involvement in the Vietnam War's "sane" opposition (as contrasted with all the hippie-types, would-be-revolutionaries, Ho Chi Minh sympathizers, etc.), but one of my favorite stories was his account of a press conference once it was all more or less over:

Reporter:  "President Ford, have we learned the lesson of Vietnam?"
President Ford: "Yes, we have."

Aside from the humor of a politician rather easily dodging a question he clearly doesn't want to answer, the exchange brings up the valuable point that everyone always learns a lesson from an incident (whether triggering an avalanche or losing 58,220 American lives).

The real question though is, just which lesson?

Looking back at his posts that I read at the time on four avalanches he triggered or in which he could have been entrained, I wonder what lesson he learned from all those close calls.  I also wonder whether other skiers will learn a lesson of pointless fatalism ("If it could happen to him..."), denial ("I can't believe it..."), or something more valuable.
Either way, RIP Rando Steve (and your partner too, who I just learned is an avy L2 grad of one of my western "penpals").  I enjoyed reading your blog over the years, and I wish I could have kept reading it for many more years to come.

Massive Wet Slide- April, 2009
"Yes, probably a bad decision to ski a south facing line where we would be held up in the line of fire I guess, considering the skies were much clearer than predicted….at least where we were."

Slab Avy on 4th Turn- April 11, 2011
"I've been trying to keep the reigns pulled-in in an effort of self preservation for when the snowpack finally consolidates, but yesterday, I got a little overzealous I guess and got into some pretty steep terrain with some wind-loaded snow not quite bonded well enough with the lower layers and a slab pulled out."
"i was a bit spooked on how much newish snow and how “upside-down” the snowpack appeared lower in the couloir and probably would have pulled the plug lower if i was on my own."

Slab Avy on 1st Turn- May 5, 2011
"Well, I think I need to have my head examined for not heeding my own advice to pull in the reigns this weekend due to a current questionable snowpack at the higher elevations here in the Tetons. Sometimes though, the lure to try and ski bigger, steeper and more exposed lines is just too great."
"sometimes people mis-judge things and conditions, which is what happened here. i thought it would be stable enough…but it wasn’t. simple as that, really."
"…upon seeing the path of the avalanche, most the places I thought would be islands of safely, most likely weren’t. not many places to hide when you have a slide that big."
"and i think that realizing we are mortal and often not able to survive avalanches, might keep us from pushing it in the future. then again…maybe not."

Remote Trigger- December 31, 2011
"One might think this is extremely stupid, but like I said prior, the slides today reaffirmed my thoughts relating to the safe skiing and skinning zones on the route, which we stuck to…sorta."
[in response to comment of "Glad you didn’t die":]
"thanks, but i think i was far from death. well…at least 150-200'."

Harrowing Rescue Video

I don't usually pay much attention to snowmachiner avalanche incidents, since their travel mode is so much different than ours.
However, this Utah incident report and video provide some valuable lessons:

• Beware of Mission Creep- The victim didn't bother bringing his beacon because his original plan was just to stay on a low-angle road, but when he saw his buddies up high...
• Don't Trust Tracks- The video clearly shows how the slope released only on the umpteenth track.
• Place/Point Last Seen ("PLS")- One person with a POV cam is stationary and focused during the avalanche, and he (or someone else?) exhorts everyone to do the same by yelling "Where's He At?!?  Where's He At?!?"
• Channel Your Inner Al Haig- The Secretary of State was generally mocked for his "I am in control here" press conference after the Reagan assassination attempt as it came off a bit like some semi-coup attempt.  But in the midst of chaos -- perceived or otherwise -- just having anybody take charge is better than nothing, as demonstrated by the one rescuer who is giving orders (e.g., to ready a probe).
• Persistent Instability- As the UAC forecaster scoops out a handfuls of obviously weak facets, he comments that the instability won't go away until the snow is coming out of their water taps.

The professionally produced video also includes some sobering post-incident interviews with the party members.  The entire video is quite long, but worth watching in its entirety.

Invasive Species Avalanche

No, not an avalanche caused by non-native vegetation, but rather a Colorado avalanche killing a skier in Lake Tahoe.
Whereas Colorado is the poster child for the continental snowpack, Lake Tahoe is the same for maritime.  But not this season, given the highly unusual thin snowpack and extremely long dry spells.
Remember that although the three avalanche climates are useful for teaching purposes and for general awareness of typical avalanche "Problems" what matters most is what is happening right then and there on the slope you are contemplating travelling on, not broad generalizations.

The comprehensive incident report includes a video of a snowpit stability test that replicates the step-down nature of the fatal slide.  Also of note is that the party dropped a cornice that released a slab a few inches deep that propagated widely across the slope.  Unfortunately, this was not a sign that the slope could not slide any more, but rather that more was still to come.

The incident report is relatively silent on the party's decision making, but having skied extensively in Lake Tahoe with my brother over the years, I can understand how the skiers might have been lulled into a sense of complacency regarding the Red Flags noted in the incident report:

• Recent avalanche activity
• Whumphing noises, shooting cracks, or collapsing
• Recent loading by new snow, wind, or rain
• Terrain Trap

Managing the Unmanageable

Brian Harder's blog usually focuses on lightweight gear and hard-core fitness, but his recent post on "slough management" is very insight.  Definitely reading the entire post, although here's a quick excerpt to whet your appetite:

"The expression suggests an ability to somehow control one of winter's most powerful natural forces - piles of snow yielding to the force of gravity. We see the term written in stories and hear it and see it in adrenaline-fueled ski porn. The fatter skis and higher speeds of today's free skiers allows for "managing" ever larger so-called sloughs. But at some point we need to call a spade a spade and admit that some of these events are really avalanches. I mean, who are we kidding here?"

Avalanche in ... Ontario?!?

I would have thought that an avalanche could never occur in Ontario.  Apparently, these snowmachiners though the same thing.  Unfortunately, the snow wasn't in on our reasoning...

As the video shows, if you have enough unstable snow and enough pitch, anything can avalanche, even if it is in Ontario.  And note how the slope fractures far above the victim, and also carries him toward some trees -- an especially bad combination.  Add in the lack of any rescue equipment, and the combination becomes even worse.

Fortunately, notice how the person with the POV is at first stationary, focused on Place/Point Last Seen.
The video then shifts to the POV of the victim, which shows . . . well, you just have to watch this to believe it:

Godzilla vs. Chairlift

Some avalanche incidents are highly educational, although others are more just "fun" in a Godzilla destructiveness kind of way.

With that caveat aside, although this video does show the often highly destructive yet typically slow-moving nature of a wet slide, I have to admit that seeing an avalanche crash into the base of a high-speed quad is kind of "fun" (given that everyone comes out okay, especially the skiers seemingly unconcerned despite their apparently close proximity):

The video from the chairlift provides a good view of the bed surface:

And finally, like everything else in the Alps, even a chairlift evac involves a helicopter:
(While in Chamonix for the first week of our honeymoon, I probably saw more helicopters in the "backcountry" than in all my time back in the U.S.!  At the hut, a broken pair of ski bindings was "repaired" by just buying a pair of bindings over the phone from a ski shop, which then loaded it onto a helicopter along with the food for that evening's dinner.)