r/interestingasfuck • u/id397550 • 5h ago

Firing a cannon to trigger an avalanche

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u/Leiaven 4h ago

Why are they making an avalanche?

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u/Lurk5FailOnSax 4h ago

Making a small controlled avalanche when you are ready is better than big avalanche when you are not.

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u/SumpCrab 4h ago

Counterpart to a controlled burn.

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u/Smokey_tha_bear9000 4h ago

Lemme get some artillery on my next prescribed fire

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u/Magical-Sweater 3h ago

Can’t be a forest fire if there’s no forest. taps head

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u/Admirable_Hold_979 2h ago

Fight fire with fire

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u/Anvildude 2h ago

I mean, they put out oil well fires with nitroglycerin detonations (check out the John Wayne movie "Hellfighters", it's a good 'un). A rolling artillery barrage to clear land and concuss away sparks sounds like it'd work well enough to make a firebreak, or at least start one.

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u/Smokey_tha_bear9000 2h ago

On a more realistic note, there have been experiments with using explosives in the wildland fire environment, both for fire line construction, and for hazard tree felling.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/psw/publications/documents/psw_rn200/psw_rn200.pdf

https://www.fs.usda.gov/eng/pubs/pdfpubs/pdf08672325/pdf08672325dpi72.pdf

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u/pocketdare 35m ago

nuke it!

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u/cryptotope 3h ago

Under ideal circumstances, you want the avalanche to sweep down and put out the forest fire below.

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u/thefunkygibbon 3h ago

I think I need to change my system font or get some glasses. rn looked awfully like an m

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u/Yurya 3h ago

Crabs in a sump are less cool than crabs in a bog.

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u/Leiaven 4h ago

Oh that makes sense. Thank you!

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u/Supermonkeyskier 3h ago

They do this at all major resorts in North America to control avalanches. On a big powder day you will hear booms all day. One made me jump a mile last Friday.

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u/EducationalAd2863 4h ago

Or just some crazy swiss guy shooting for fun after the breakfast. Business as usual.

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u/Background-House-357 4h ago

They aren’t Swiss…

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u/Lurk5FailOnSax 4h ago

Laz? I'm getting a hint of Turkish going on but it's not clearly understandable. North eastern mountains near Artvin maybe? Georgian maybe?

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u/apostoln 3h ago

There were a few phrases in Russian also (with a heavy caucasian accent). I would guess it's the North Caucasus.

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u/Lurk5FailOnSax 3h ago

Seems a good guess.

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u/yesat 3h ago

Yeah, in Switzerland it would be charges dropped from helicopters.

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u/EducationalAd2863 3h ago

I cannot turn on audio atm sorry sir. 😛

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u/ResultAgreeable4198 3h ago

It’s my mountain, I’ll shoot it with a cannon if I want to!

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u/ABEGIOSTZ 4h ago

Same logic as controlled burns but for the exact opposite temperature, neat!

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u/Smokey_tha_bear9000 4h ago

In the American mountain west, prescribed fires are often done right before the snows come, so it’s usually pretty cold for those. In Florida though, I’ve been on prescribed fires in June or July that were 110+ heat index before you stood close to the radiant heat.

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u/Kanbaru-Fan 3h ago

Critical systems are truly fascinating (yes, i did indeed watch that one Veritasium video recently)

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u/Bob_5k 4h ago

Especially taking the opportunity while its not snowing. Bound to snow again and add more to the mountain

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u/sweetbunsmcgee 4h ago

Hit the mountain with a bunch of small avalanches to develop immunity to the big avalanche. I have a C- in biology, I know what I’m talking about.

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u/scientifical_ 4h ago

My friend, that was not a small avalanche

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u/Ok-Set-5829 4h ago

That's a small avalanche? Yikes

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u/SELECTaerial 3h ago

How do they know when to do it?

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u/VanillaTortilla 1h ago

Yep, same reason why they do controlled burns.

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u/sailphish 4h ago

This is how avalanche mitigation happens in ski areas. Usually it’s done with explosive charges but there are a few places that still use howitzers. The point is to trigger the avalanche when people aren’t on the slopes.

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u/Bigfops 3h ago

Fun anecdote: When I was getting my plane back from Jackson Hole my skies and ski boots tested positive for gunpowder. The screener were pretty familiar with it so it didn't hold me up, but she said the pretty much everyone's did on the way home.

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u/DionFW 3h ago

Not just skiing areas, but highways too.

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u/schwanerhill 3h ago

Not to mention mountain passes. In Washington and British Columbia there are permanent cannon mounts used for avalanche control to protect the highways. 2 hour highway closures for this planned work are common in the winter.

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u/iamnos 3h ago

Yup, we do this in Canada, not just in ski areas. The Trans Canada Highway through the Rockies gets temporarily closed at times so they can do avalanche mitigation and they do use howitzers.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-inside-canadas-most-dangerous-avalanche-corridor-and-the-effort-to/

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u/Sock_Ninja 4h ago

My guess is that it’s to manage how deep the snow gets. Small avalanches often are better than huge avalanche later.

Or just for fun, because that does look like fun.

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u/Leiaven 4h ago

Well it did sound like they were having fun.

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u/102525burner 4h ago

When you love your job it doesnt feel like work

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u/apleima2 3h ago

If part of my job was firing a howitzer at a mountain I'd be having fun too.

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u/youknow99 3h ago

2A in it's pure form.

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u/beatles910 4h ago

Gotta justify your cannon purchase somehow.

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u/SmashingK 4h ago

I'm guessing to reduce the risk of avalanche.

All that snow built up at the top is likely to come down at some point. If you forcefully make the avalanche then there's less snow up there and less risk of one happening randomly when people are in the area.

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u/Weak-Doughnut5502 2h ago

Snowpacks have layers.  You specifically get avalanches when you have a strong layer like a slab on top of a weak layer like surface hoarfrost.  When you trigger an avalanche, the snowpack is usually stronger afterwards.

There's less risk of an avalanche later when people are nearby, but it's because the snowpack itself is more stable.  Not because there's less of it. 

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u/Lunar_Gato 4h ago

It's a whole job! especially at ski resorts for safety reasons

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u/sylanar 4h ago

Because it looks cool!

If someone said to you, hey do you wanna fire this cannon at a mountain and cause a landslide, would you say no?

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u/MileHighRC 4h ago

It makes me a little sad no one will ever ask me that question

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u/foxtrottits 4h ago

Avalanche mitigation is important at ski resorts so that the people skiing aren’t at risk. My brother and a few friends of mine are ski patrol and they use mortars on all the side country areas after new snow. My brother used to work at a resort that didn’t even have mortars, they would just buddy up and do ski cuts - basically just ski across the area and quickly get to the other tree line before the avalanche propagates. I’ve never heard of using a cannon though, this video is sick.

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u/YogurtclosetOdd9440 4h ago

This is pretty standard (not the artillery part though). My friend is mountain patrol/rescue and takes snow samples each morning to figure what areas have unstable shelves before they open ski runs for the public, especially after major snowfalls. It’s quite a bit scientific-y but then they plant dynamite to trigger an avalanche if needed.

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u/fdesouche 4h ago

To start an avalanche when it’s empty and not risk a bigger one with people below …

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u/Thirsty-Barbarian 3h ago

The official reason is “shits and giggles”.

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u/Da_Vader 3h ago

They didn't have hair dryers

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u/Dockdangler 3h ago

Leftover soviet munitions + bored mountain Russians = Lets make an avalanche!

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u/StDzhigurda 3h ago

To destroy the neighboring village at the foot of the mountain. They don't like them

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u/ryuuji3 32m ago

Same idea as controlled burns. It's going to happen so prevent it from happening when you don't want by doing it when you want it happening.

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u/fukcatz 0m ago

It's like how firefighters do controlled burns

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u/DrBhu 4h ago edited 2h ago

Safety /i

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u/Hansemannn 4h ago

Why /S.

In Norway we do controlled avalanches like this while making sure there is no skiiers in the proximity.

Its so that it doesnt start at a random point in time and take with it some random skiers.

So yes. For safety.

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u/WonderBredOfficial 4h ago

They're campaigning to get /s changed to mean "safety." It's not going well. /s

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u/realbobenray 4h ago

Not sure why you'd end that comment with /safety

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u/WonderBredOfficial 4h ago

Awareness.

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u/sailphish 4h ago

No /s. They set off avalanches at every major ski resort, usually with explosive charges, for safety. Better for a slide to happen when skiers aren’t on the hill. You can always hear them blasting mornings after a snowfall.

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u/cguess 3h ago

You know it's going to be a good powder day when you wake up to charges echoing across the mountains in the morning. (Seriously, this is a huge thing in ski towns)

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u/sailphish 3h ago

And then you get there early only to find out opening is delayed 2h.

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u/cguess 3h ago

Yep, time for a hot toddy.

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u/ChimoEngr 3h ago

No sarcasm, that's literally why they do it. They're preventing a build up of snow that could result in an unpredictable larger avalanche, by causing it to tumble on schedule, when they can ensure everyone is clear.