Avalanches claim six victims in western US

Photos

Avalanche Area

see larger image

uploaded by Paul and Kelly

• 

  uploaded by Paul and Kelly | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Slingerx5 | add comment

• 

  uploaded by beesknees | add comment

• 

  uploaded by tore_urnes | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Wephi | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Wephi | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Wephi | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Wephi | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Wephi | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Wephi | add comment

Note: The photographs coming in on this story are incredible. Have a look at the slideshow!

Having grown up in the Rocky Mountains, I experienced a few avalanches as a kid and teenager. Sometimes you could hear the boom--which sounded like a bomb going off--as a slope gave way. More than once people lost their lives in the back country (or off-piste, as it is also called) above my hometown, and in high school avalanche training was integrated into our gym classes. Ski days were also declared, since there were certain "dump" days when our school's administration knew a large segment of the population wasn't going to be coming to class because it had snowed.

The conditions which make for great skiing are, unfortunately, the same which make for avalanches--a heavy snow dump of light powder makes for a great run, but also makes for a much higher avalanche risk.

This winter seems to be a higher avalanche risk season than most. I would wave the climate change flag, but the sliding snow seems to be doing that for me:

Like this past week in Colorado, where mtippett points out that being stuck on a mountain pass is almost as fun as being stuck on a JetBlue flight...

Or earlier this winter, when laurascott observed cars being buried and swept away as the result of an avalanche on Berthoud Pass...

Or this report from this past weekend, which shows that avalanches continue to devastate the north- and mid-west of US and Canada: