Survive An Avalanche

https://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/outdoors/a35252776/survive-anything-avalanche/


Good morning all,

Per ...

Might need a slide rule or a laptop.

Potato chip example in article.

Article followed with some other survival scenerio articles.

 

my cousin just died in an avalanche in montana last month...left behind a wife and 2 young girls....sad day he was only 45ish..

 

Condolences re loss of cousin, Wally.

Hoping for best re new widow and the 2 girls.

 

My son works in that industry , he gives seminars and classes in avalanche. also he takes people in the back country on ski expeditions. there are always a few deaths every year the the area where he works (ski country )
He has a thing that he wears around his neck that if he does get caught in an avalanche it inflates , and he floats above the snow https://www.snowsafe.co.uk/i-was-caught-in-an-avalanche-and-survived-thanks-to-my-avalanche-airbag/

 

Here too.

If rock-climbing, wear your helmet. Good-sized rocks do fall. But then, sometimes helmets are a bit insufficient.

Year 2009:

https://www.auntbugs.com/gatlinburg-cabins-blog/north-carolina-tennessee-rock-slide/

It took forever for the slide to be cleared. By 2012, one lane was cleared.

https://www.wrcbtv.com/story/16685018/rockslide-cleanup-on-i-40-west-partially-complete




2019, here's a small slide:
https://www.citizen-times.com/story...directions-near-nc-tennessee-line/2958619002/

Other slides -- these slides happen perpetually up in the mountains. While looking for photos in my region, I also found rock slides out in the Rockies that shut down highways. Small mountain roads get cut all the time.

https://www.foxcarolina.com/news/ph...cle_44e6cfb4-8f20-5d4d-90b3-2ccbce6f637e.html

Out in California, here's a rock slide near Yosemite Lakes Park. Miracle that nobody got hurt in this one.

https://kmph.com/news/local/rockslide-closes-hwy-41-north-of-22-mile-house

 

Real good, Arctic Bill !

 

yeah its been a rough month and a 1/2...

lost my uncle Duane(aunts husband, 67 years married) he was 87 to pneumonia, bad valves, and a final stroke in less than 1 week.
lost my very good online church friend Terry he was 67 to prostate cancer.
the lost my cousin craig to the avalanche.

then lo and behold i ended up in the hospital pretty ill for 2 days last week 30 hours in the ER and 18 hours in a room with no fixed cause that i can figure out.

and dear mothers short term memory loss has gone into overdrive this last month its less than 5 minutes now...

 

Here in West Virginia we constantly have rock slides and hill slides in the spring. Lived in Colorado and Washington and learned what to watch for and stayed out of avalanche zones. Have seen a number of dead elk and one dead moose in avalanches. If they couldn't make it I wouldn't give a human much chance.

Dale

 

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/french-olympic-snowboarder-julie-pomagalski-dead-avalanche

"Julie Pomagalski, a French snowboarder who competed in the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics, died Tuesday after getting caught up in an avalanche in the Swiss Alps, the French Ski Federation said. She was 40."

 

As tragic as this death is at 40 yo, at least she was participating in her life's calling.

It could have been a vicious murder in Switzerland or France.

 

Maybe; yet, age 40 is only when one is coming into true maturity -- if maturity is to ever find one. At 40, I was in my prime. My sons are there now. Forty is too young to die.

My parents died young. I was in high school when my father died (I had to sell his business operations to pay for his burial and to get us by for a while). My mom died when I was finishing grad school. I was a bit young to deal with their too-young deaths. One of my sons was almost killed. Our daughter died in her thirties. Young death, seen plenty of it and not just in my family. Watching young people die, getting killed, is a bit much.

I would have had to learned to ski, but would rather have had the avalanche happen to me.
.

 

I guess that wherever you live there are things that will kill you if you aren't careful and/or vigilant. I have less than now worries about avalanche of any kind so to me that thought is very scary to me. Hurricanes and tornados along with all sorts of snakes and floods are just normal here and not especially worrying.

We had a week of ice and snow this winter and it was awful. No power cold and the roads were so bad that the state was telling everyone to just stay at home and ride it out. For us 4 inches of snow is a freaking blizzard. I learned one thing. My little camps stoves are not enough for real cold with no power. I now have a big propane heater and a hundred-pound propane bottle. That is what being prepared is all about.

It is the things that you don't expect that will test you. I had all sorts of small camping type heaters that ran off a one pound can of propane. They kept us from freezing but it was not comfortable. 45 in your house is not comfortable room temperature. That was about as good as it got in the daytime. At night it got about 5 degrees colder.

We lose our power often enough that I stay prepared for that. Hurricanes can KO the power for up to 6 weeks and if you aren't prepared it can be pretty uncomfortable. We have been without for about 2 weeks but to tell the truth we had a great time. It was in the fall so it was cool not cold and we had parties most evenings. Our friends came over and we had a big cook out. We played cards and read. I set up a couple of tents in the yard and we slept in those if it was warm at night. It is kind of funny when a late season hurricane blows through it is often really nice for a week or two afterward.

I would assume that if you live someplace that has a lot of snow that you are prepared for it and can't imagine 4 inches and some ice to be a big deal. We don't have any way to clear the ice off most the roads other than wait for it to melt. People don't know how to drive on ice so even if you do you are still in danger of being plowed into by an idiot that is driving WAAAAAY too fast. I just stayed home for the duration. Next time I won't be cold though.

 

Good morning TexDanm,

You summerized my views on contemporary aspects of preparedness.

It's much less about the natural perils and much more so about the various categories of idiots allowed by the authorities to florish in our societies.

The idiots who drive too fast on icey roads, the trash who store large quanties of gasoline in improper/unsafe containers, .......

Our problems are not hurricanes, ice storms, wildfires, ....... they are natural occurances. It's the idiots who are the problem.

 

In most cases it is the stupid people that cause most of the real problems in any disaster. It seems that most people these days only keep enough real food in their house for one day. I base this on the 3-mile-long line that idiots sat in after the last hurricane that hit us. They burned five gallons of gas sitting in line and waiting for a cast of bottled water and a half dozen MREs. This was the next day after the storm. As far as I know the only people that lost their water were those with private wells that had lost their power.

It isn't like hurricanes sneak up on you. Anyone with five living brain cells should have gone to the store and put back some water several days before the storm hit. ??? It is based on things like this that tell me that any disaster that shut down government aid and utilities will result in MASSIVE deaths. Some people are just too stupid to live without someone taking care of them. No great loss...