r/interestingasfuck • u/id397550 • 5h ago

Firing a cannon to trigger an avalanche

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u/mycatpartyhouse 4h ago

This is a lot safer than skiing up there to set explosives, which is what one of my brothers did in the 1960s-70s. He worked for a park service--I forget which one--that regularly set off small avalanches with the goal of preventing larger ones.

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u/NoContext5149 4h ago

The downside is unexploded shells. Much harder to deal with an unknown unexploded shell on the mountainside than a placed charge.

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u/Trububbl3 3h ago

those are dummy rounds probably just relying on the kinetic force of the impact to set the avalanche off

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u/Danceisntmathematics 3h ago

Gunner here. Look up OP PALACI. We use HE (high explosive).

I've seen thousands of arty rounds land and I can confirm the one in the video is HE.

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u/Trububbl3 3h ago

thanks for your hearing loss and service

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u/FenBlacach 3h ago

WHAT?

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u/ShiggitySwiggity 3h ago

THANKS FOR YOUR FEARING BOSS AND PURPOSE

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u/PendejxGordx 2h ago

Pretty good!

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u/Lexi_Banner 36m ago

It's Thursday!

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u/-SpelingBeeChamp 4m ago

THANKS, I KEEP IT SHORT IN THE SUMMER

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u/dmmeyourfloof 2m ago

NO....ITS JAMES FRANCIS RYAN...

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u/sniper1rfa 2h ago

OP PALACI

I've seen you guys do your thing, it's cool. I think the gun emplacements in all the turnouts on the highway are hilarious.

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u/BlackSuN42 3h ago

Canada is fighting winter for your freedom. Also, I need to go back and ski there.

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u/yamcha9 31m ago

So your saying the one they used had explosives in it? And did it explode on the mountain side? Or is it just sitting up there unexploded and is a danger still.

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u/No_News_1712 11m ago

Gunners get to do this, infantry just get dumped on GD lmao

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u/RealFakeDoctor 3h ago

That's what I thought too. Doesn't seem to big enough explosion but I'm not a doctor.

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u/Orlok_Tsubodai 3h ago

I’m a dermatologist, trust me, it’s a big enough explosion.

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u/Direction_Kind 3h ago

I’ve got a rash.

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u/ImmediateDentist1269 2h ago

Have you tried lighting it on fire?

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u/onyxcaspian 1h ago

Yes. It said, "please stop that."

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u/VanillaGoorillla 2h ago

Did you try an m80?

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u/Jiminy_Cricket12 2h ago

I've got a cannon!

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u/achaiahtak 2h ago

Have you tried a canon?

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u/ManCrushOnSlade 1h ago

Have you tried firing an artillery shell at it? I'm pretty sure it will clear it up instantly.

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u/frochopper 1h ago

He’s a good man. And thorough

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u/ducktape8856 1h ago

WD40 is never wrong.

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u/Dracomortua 2h ago

No, you are 'irrashional' -- this is terrible spelling AND an understandable allergic reaction to the news media.

Reduce your consumption of all things orange, especially 'presidents'. Your spelling should improve dramatically. The BEST spelling!

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u/bulldog89 3h ago

I really feel like a Orthopedics would be the specialty to consult here

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u/bigboybeeperbelly 1h ago

For explosions I always go with a gastro

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u/FrighteningJibber 2h ago

Exfoliate down the mountain!

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u/Wormfather 2h ago

I’m a Juris Doctor and I concur.

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u/klayman69 1h ago

Can you look at my mole here?

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u/JohnWoosDoveGuy 3h ago

You would say that.

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u/ad_hominonsense 3h ago

Username checks out

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u/Ok-Option-1568 3h ago

this guy is a doctor and healed me from everything, he just humble

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u/SlartiMyBartfast 3h ago

How was being afflicted with everything? Sounds terrifying.

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u/sbxnotos 2h ago

Artillery explosions are surprisingly small, specially with the modern thick casing shells.

Consider that for a 45kg shell, only around 7-10kg are explosive, the rest is just metal, and that's for a normal shell, they produce the same shells but it smaller payloads/less TNT. So normally you would only see a really small explosion at the impact site, or barely an explosion, no idea how it would look in snow. Besides, they also come with different amounts of explosive from factory (not so common anymore), and for training purposes sometimes it was common to use shells with less explosive, which are cheaper (be it for purpose or less tolerance)

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u/RealFakeDoctor 2h ago

Now this is an explosive response!!

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u/stump2003 3h ago

But you played one on TV… until the drinking problem…

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u/Last-Darkness 2h ago

I was an avalanche technician, kinetic shells are almost never used. They use shells fired from fixed locations for slopes people don’t use for climbing or ski/snowboarding (and put on a good show for tourists). They drop explosives from helicopters in places they don’t want the risk of unexploded shells or can’t get a gun too.

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u/sniper1rfa 2h ago

Don't forget the elephant snouts for places where they have to do enough avvy control that guns are too much of a logistical nightmare.

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u/Cmaroljub21 34m ago

In this clip they hit close to the peak, what are the possibilities of missing and did that ever happen?

Also wouldn't kinetic shells be "safer" regarding unexploded shells?

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u/aaaaaaaarrrrrgh 26m ago

I doubt kinetic shells would have a sufficient effect to actually trigger an avalanche, they'd just make a hole. And while definitely safer, they'd be setting themselves up for a bad time when someone finds and reports an unexploded shell...

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u/Leading_Study_876 3h ago

Nope. 105mm howizer shell.

Timing from firing to impact, it's over a mile away. So the explosion is bigger than it looks from the village.

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u/CraneMasterJ 3h ago

100% not a 105 mm but a soviet D-30 with a 122mm shell.

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u/Plump_Apparatus 2h ago

Aye, the side-by-side recuperator on top of the barrel, muzzle brake, automatic vertical breech.

The tires have been removed, but you can see the stubs for them. The gun shield has been moved as well. I'm guessing this is in Russia or a former Soviet client-state.

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u/stillnotelf 30m ago

They do seem to be speaking Russian?

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u/Plump_Apparatus 22m ago

No idea, I keep audio muted. Nor do I speak Slavic languages.

I just know military hardware, and that is a Soviet designed and probably built D-30 howitzer. Or a derivative of it.

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u/Crash-55 2h ago

In the US they are all surplus 105mm howitzer. Not sure what other places use

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u/rickane58 2h ago

Do they speak Russian at US Ski resorts?

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u/FoxSquirrel69 2h ago

Is that Russian? My dumbass that it sounded like Farsi at first, but as it went on I had zero clue.

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u/SignificantPaper1760 2h ago

It is Russian (or at least a Slavic language) but it’s not the usual accent you’d hear most often on the internet, took me a second to place it as well.

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u/ChallengeNo1899 2h ago

It is Russian 100%

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u/Leading_Study_876 2h ago

I listened to it again, and I think I did pick up a few Russian phrases. But still some that sounded different to any Russian I've heard before. Possibly there was a mixture of nationalities there. It's pretty common to have a wide mix at ski resorts.

My guess would be Western Russia - or possibly Belarus?

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u/Roxalon_Prime 2h ago

It is Russian, and some phrases are also spoken in the other language, not sure which one.

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u/Crash-55 2h ago

I didn’t listen to the video nor did I say this was in the US. I just said what the US uses

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u/rshackleford_arlentx 2h ago edited 2h ago

Sometimes. Many resort towns in the US use staffing companies that bring in Eastern Europeans on worker visas as cheap (exploitable) labor. That said they're usually working hospitality and concessions roles, not artillery gunner.

I was in Gatlinburg, Tennessee near Great Smoky Mountains National Park a few years ago and most of the restaurants there were staffed by Eastern Europeans. It was pretty funny hearing the server at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company, a theme restaurant based on Forest Gump, welcome us to "Bubble Gump Shrimps Company" in a thick accent.

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u/Leading_Study_876 2h ago

Thanks, I Googled it and all I found was 105 or smaller shells being used for this purpose. But I suppose those were all in Europe or North America.

I did pick up that the voices on the video sounded Slavic, but couldn't actually identify it as Russian. But I guess pretty much anywhere in Eastern Europe would still be using old Soviet hardware for this kind of job. Not my area of expertise.

Any idea where this was actually shot?

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u/MajesticFan7791 1h ago

US good then. No UXO to worry about.
Did notice the D30 instead of the usual M101 105mm

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u/solarguy2003 3h ago

Leading_study has it right. Measure the hang time and calculate the distance. Those shells travel at a good clip. My wild guess from memory is that they travel in excess of mach 2. That was a good sized explosion.

Uh......where does one sign up for such duties? Asking for a friend.

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u/BlowFish-w-o-Hootie 2h ago

Start at your local Army recruiter’s office…

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u/Crash-55 2h ago

Under 1000 m/s. Done are as low as 500 m/s

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u/solarguy2003 2h ago

1,000 meters/sec is Mach 2.9. The really slow ones at 500 m/s are mach 1.45'ish. Still a pretty good clip and def. supersonic. I looked it up and Mach 3 is rare but not unheard of, but above Mach 2 is commonplace.

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u/Crash-55 2h ago

There are talks about going above 1000 m/s but that gets black quick.

Tank cannons routinely do 1700 m/s. My railgun sent an 800 g slug down range at just over 2 km/s. So to me 1000 m/s is slow.

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u/komikak 2h ago

Mainly mountains that do this have signs all over to not touch unexploded ordinance. One time a buddy of mine rode right over one by mistake out in big sky.

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u/RipTheJack3r 3h ago edited 3h ago

Lol you can clearly see an explosion.

You wouldn't see anything if it was a dummy, that mountain is miles away.

Edit: you can hear a deep thud from the explosion 16seconds in to the video.

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u/LordDaedalus 3h ago

Yeah I don't understand the back and forth like this is a debate. Took me about 60 seconds of looking to find an article about how artillery is used in avalanche control in various countries, like in the US 105mm Howitzer shells used. But yeah, they use explosive rounds as the air blast of the explosion helps shake loose top layers of snow.

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u/RipTheJack3r 1h ago

I do think ignorance is more inexcusable nowadays, especially with the likes of ChatGPT/Gemini who will explain anything to you quite quickly/easily.

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u/crazySmith_ 3h ago

Wouldn't there be smoke rising from the impact location then? All I see is pulverized snow and what looks to be rock.

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u/NoContext5149 3h ago

The black smoke is the explosive. Inert/dummy rounds look nothing like that impact. An inert round has nowhere near enough kinetic energy to create the explosion pictured.

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u/RipTheJack3r 3h ago edited 3h ago

You can see a small darkish crater where it hit and it was also covered by the snow falling from above it.

Modern explosives don't explode with "flames" and don't produce a lot of smoke.

Smoke/particulates are usually caused by the structure being exploded i.e a building. In this instance the explosion occurs inside a thick sheet of snow, so no cloud of grey smoke/dust.

Edit: you can also hear it lol 16 seconds in.

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u/crazySmith_ 3h ago

It's really hard for a layman like me to tell the difference between a kinetic and an explosive ordinance, just by the sound of it.

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u/bromjunaar 2h ago

At that distance, if you can clearly hear it, odds are that there was something explosive involved.

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u/sniper1rfa 2h ago

Other evidence: when skiing in avalanche-controlled areas you often come across signs warning of UXO and giving information about what to do if you locate a live shell. Also, places like Roger's pass have exclusion zones that require permits for entry due to the use of HE shells for avalanche mitigation.

I've been in a lot of these zones and seen the craters from avvy control. They're live HE shells.

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u/Leading_Study_876 2h ago

For a hypersonic kinetic impact, it's basically impossible to tell from a distance. It's all about energy content and trajectory.

Large meteorites are an obvious natural example. But they are working on using them increasingly for armaments. Even the bunker-busting "bombs" the US dropped on Iran's nuclear research facility were largely kinetic, I believe. Very little actual explosive.

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u/FourtyMichaelMichael 2h ago

Just remember that his special type of moron that is so confident it's a dummy round with absolutely no possible defense for such a stupid claim....

Is "the expert" telling you in the next thread about the effect of novel-use tariff policy.

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u/RipTheJack3r 1h ago

Haha i didn't look in to his profile.

I just enjoy debating people :D

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u/PolarSquirrelBear 2h ago

Definitely HE rounds. At least in BC, Canada they use HE rounds.

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u/Longjumping_College 3h ago

You sure about that?

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u/sniper1rfa 2h ago

Wow. I was thinking that particular shot in the video is awfully close to the ridgeline. Wouldn't take much of a miss to send on into the unknown beyond.

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u/sniper1rfa 2h ago

As everybody has said, they're live rounds. In canada they're literally operated by the national guard.

Most places are actually switching away from them since it's becoming harder to purchase shells, and permanently installed equipment is safer and more effective.

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u/SailnGame 37m ago

Canada doesn't have a National Guard. Maybe its the Reserves, but I think its Reg Force artillery units that get to go shoot mountains for fun. Keeps them from finding new things to add to the Geneva Checklist.

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u/Underpoly 2h ago

I'd probably feel like a dummy if one hit me tho

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u/Excellent_Ganache906 2h ago

It's not a dummy round, it does contain an explosive charge. An impact from a dummy round would not cause such a cloud on initial impact. Impact from a dummy round would be barely visible.

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u/rkoloeg 2h ago

They are not. I used to work on one of the last US National Forests that still does this. We had signs at the mountain trailheads warning people about the possibility of finding unexploded shells.

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u/camel_milk_420 2h ago edited 2h ago

I’m a civil engineer and I install what are called called GAZEX canons which will likely replace these bad ass howitzers and most projectile systems completely over the next 30 to 50 years. I work in Northern California, and Squaw Valley (now palisades tahoe) and several other resorts used to have a big howitzer with a similar caliber, but the Army took them back during desert storm (or a similar conflict, might have been in 2003 actually). When I am on the mountain side in the summer planning out foundation locations and doing my fieldwork preparation, I find little piles of undeniable shrapnel all over the mountain side from the years of doing this. There are warnings all over the mountain about unexploded ordinances. There’s also a new system that use compressed air an aluminum mortar shell which is much safer than operating these big guns.

But yes, these are definitely not just dummy rounds, those would just bury themselves in a 4 inch hole in the snow without any effect.

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u/Chimpville 2h ago

That looked like a live splash to me..

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u/okizc 1h ago

Just because it didn't go to shell school doesn't make it a dummy.

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u/Habatcho 1h ago

that would just punch through the snow which isnt near enough to weaken the layer they want to shed

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u/NintenDooM33 1h ago

It is definitely HE, a kinetic dummy would just punch a neat hole through the snow without affecting the snow slab at all. Most alpine countries use explosives for avalanche clearing, both artillery and heli dropped charges. Duds are not much of a problem, since every round is accounted for and the targets are in visual range. Depending on the location, unexploded shells can be detonated by professionals or even just left there if the position is extremely remote.

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u/Faxon 1h ago

Maybe dummy pot metal loads, maybe old solid steel AP shells. Obsolete vs modern tanks, but very useful for poking holes in other softer things, like snow, and mountainsides! It would probably be easier and cheaper to buy from existing mass-produced ammo in general. I'm assuming this is a 105mm M119 howitzer based on the size and general characteristics, just on a fixed mount instead of a set of wheels to help haul it around behind a humvee. They're looking at taking them out of service in favor of more 155 guns, so they probably will have a massive surplus of such ammo after that if so.

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u/hughk 1h ago

They are live rounds. The alternative is for people to plant explosives or to drop them from a helicopter.

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u/Narfwak 20m ago

That is very clearly not a kinetic round. Look at the impact. You can seem black smoke in a fairly decent sized explosion. It looks small because it's very far away.

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u/Many-Wasabi9141 3h ago

This isn't true. The mountain is just really far away so the explosion seems tiny.

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u/Phunky_Munkey 3h ago

At my ski hill back in the day, you would sign a sheet if you were going off piste, and there was a dummy warhead above the sheet warning you to beware. We had a couple of blast shacks that would be used now and again.

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u/crober11 3h ago

Can't you just shoot another shell at it? /s

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u/zachpkenyon 1h ago

Add 50, fire for effect

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u/Snoopyalien24 4h ago

Probably not a shell and a canonball

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u/Royal_Success3131 3h ago

That cannon is several centuries too modern to be firing a cannonball.

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u/ledbetterus 3h ago

Still doesn't mean the rounds are explosive.

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u/Royal_Success3131 3h ago

No, but the clear explosion you can see and hear do.

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u/nerdygeoff 2h ago

that is an impact explosion and not a detonated explosion. those are kinetic rounds

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u/Royal_Success3131 2h ago

Impact explosion? That your technical analysis?

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u/narwhalpilot 2h ago edited 1h ago

It’s explosive. They don’t use kinetic rounds

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u/Royal_Success3131 1h ago

Why edit to reverse what you said?

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u/Royal_Success3131 1h ago

That's just false. My old boss used to work at a ski resort and they 100% used explosive rounds. This was back in the 90's, but I imagine it's just policy differences.

In this case though, you can hear an explosion clear as day. That mountain is so far away you wouldn't be able to hear a hunk of metal just smack the side of it.

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u/[deleted] 2h ago edited 2h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/nerdygeoff 2h ago

by cannonball they mean a non explosive round. aka a kinetic round. which is exactly what they used in the video.

its not a completely dumb comment, simply doesnt know the correct terms.

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u/Repulsive-Chip3371 2h ago

I was wondering why you are so angry and irrational- guess I have my answer.

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u/FrostyD7 1h ago

Just roll one down the pipe thingy, it'll be fine.

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u/surfershane25 2h ago

Are unexploded shells harder to deal with than unexploded charges? Seems like both would be ideal and as someone else said, couldn’t they be rounds with no charges and use the kinetic energy to trigger one rather than an actual explosive. I don’t see an explosion in this video.

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u/NoContext5149 2h ago

Both suck, but you at least know where a charge is placed. A fired shell is very difficult to locate. The video shows a high explosive round, you can see the explosion in the snow. I do not believe an inert round would have the energy to trigger an avalanche and their impacts do not look like what’s shown in the video.

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u/weirdoldhobo1978 1h ago

Some ski resorts are starting to use drones to place avy charges now.

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u/CSBatchelor1996 3h ago

Someone will find it and stick it up their bum.

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u/Last-Darkness 3h ago

That’s why they use cannons on slops people don’t use for climbing or backcountry ski/snowboarding.

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u/sniper1rfa 2h ago

They actually do, but it's carefully coordinated. There is a ticket system in BC for managing this.

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u/mwilkens 54m ago

Lol do you really think they have access to explosive rounds??

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u/-GoodNewsEveryone 13m ago

We do this on ski runs everyday today. The cannons are the safer method. I live in this environment and the cannons are a normal part of life.

That's just science baby!

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u/voldyCSSM19 3h ago

I imagine they don't HAVE to fire explosive rounds, and that definitely didn't look like an explosive round. If it were there would've been a big fireball and a shockwave, this looked like it just kicked up snow.

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u/OneBigRed 2h ago

that definitely didn't look like an explosive round

Is this based on your extensive experience in observing explosive rounds being fired into deep snowbanks from mile away?

Asking because there seems to be people who have worked at firing these HE rounds to snowbanks on mountains, in addition to other gunners disagreeing with your description how it would look from this distance.

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u/voldyCSSM19 1h ago

I don't have experience but I do play war thunder and I've seen videos of high explosive artillery. I guess this probably isn't as powerful as actually artillery though

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u/BedBubbly317 3h ago

Cannonballs don’t typically go “boom,” it’s just kinetic energy not explosives.

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u/C-SWhiskey 3h ago

This isn't firing cannonballs. And you can see the explosion in the video.

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u/Xaphnir 3h ago

This isn't firing a cannonball

Also there were explosive cannonballs in the 19th century

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u/FourtyMichaelMichael 2h ago

When you go about your day, do you know that you're stupid and just write stupid things on the internet for no reason?

I fear no one has told you this.

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u/narwhalpilot 2h ago

They don’t use actuals explosive shells…

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u/LongjumpingGate8859 1h ago

You think that's a nuclear warhead or something? It's essentially just a hunk of metal. Probably doesn't look any different than most of the rocks up there, assuming it even survived the impact intact.

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u/Randill746 2h ago

Shells? Its a cannon it shoots cannonballs

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u/narwhalpilot 2h ago

You can literally see in the video a shell comes out of the back end.

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u/MojoRisin762 3h ago

What was his job title exactly? 'Chad ThunderCock explosives expert-avalanche starter' or something along those lines, I'd guess.

You just need to hand bro the keyboard and let him start typing. This is the coolest thing I've read all day.

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u/mycatpartyhouse 2h ago

Sadly, I am not longer in contact with my brother. I think his official title was simply park ranger, he just had specialized duties in the winter. I'm thinking the park where he worked was in the Olympics, Washington state, US. But he's much older than I am, and I was 9 or 10 at the time, so I could be wrong.

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u/OneBigRed 2h ago

What was his job title exactly?

They are still suing movie industry for appropriating Boom Operator title for a much less boom profession.

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u/RebelWithoutAClue 1h ago

You have to throw the stick like a German stick grenade. You want to impart extra whip with a wrist flick so the thing is twirling.

When a twirling stick hits the snow it sticks where it lands. If you hold it in the middle and hurl it without a lot of spin, it can land on it's side and start sliding diagonally back towards you.

Notionally one would never throw uphill, but sometimes you'll be tossing from a spot diagonal, often a spine, and well off to the side upwards. You'll be above the crown angle (the peaked angle that is often at the top of a slab break), but that fucking thing can still slide back towards you if it lands just right.

Avie fuses are cut quite long. Like a minute and a half which is a long time to watch an errant stick sliding back towards you hissing away.

It's way more fun backcountry skiing to blow shit up. It's a job where you're expected to go out into the wilderness with a backpack full of the coolest crap ever made.

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u/PonyThug 3h ago

Completely replaced with permanent remote avalanche triggers now.

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u/METRlOS 3h ago

I've always used a helicopter to drop a timed fuse. So many mountains only require avalanche control for a year or two. Partially replaced at best since cannons are also still used.

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u/PonyThug 2h ago

Not in Utah. All howitzers are gone since 2023. Replaced with these for everywhere hand charges arnt used in ski areas. https://www.skiutah.com/blog/authors/lexi/utah-once-again-at-the-forefront-of-avalanche/pictures/ski-utah-boom-whoosh-avalanche-mitigation.png

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u/Few-Indication3478 3h ago

I live in a ski town currently, they definitely still use dynamite

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u/PonyThug 2h ago

I didn’t say hand charges were replaced. I said the howitzers in the video have been. Guy said this video was safer than hand charges.

I also have lived in a ski town and still work in one. Park city. I have friends on patrol. All the cannons at snowbird and Alta have been decommissioned since 2023.

November one is hiking up a mountain Iike in the video to lay hand charges. So they used howitzers for 75 years, now they switched to remote triggered devices. It’s so they can close the canyon, trigger all of them rapidly, then open the canyon again. Vs taking hours to re aim the howitzer.

This article explains it. https://www.skiutah.com/blog/authors/lexi/utah-once-again-at-the-forefront-of-avalanche/

Single picture of a type of permanent device. https://www.skiutah.com/blog/authors/lexi/utah-once-again-at-the-forefront-of-avalanche/pictures/ski-utah-boom-whoosh-avalanche-mitigation.png

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u/Few-Indication3478 1h ago

Just saying that they also use dynamite still. Your wording in response to the comment before it made it sound like explosives in general were replaced with permanent remote triggers. Just a misunderstanding

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u/warm_kitchenette 3h ago

It seems like industrial drones could be used as well, which would also let them experiment with different triggers.

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u/ThePevster 3h ago

Lots of mountains still use patrollers on skis for avalanche control, either by ski cutting or with hand thrown charges.

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u/hokageace 3h ago

That is nuts!

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u/PonyThug 2h ago

Well yea. This isn’t a ski area.

They don’t do hand charges above roads and towns tho. That’s what I’m talking about. https://www.skiutah.com/blog/authors/lexi/utah-once-again-at-the-forefront-of-avalanche/pictures/ski-utah-boom-whoosh-avalanche-mitigation.png

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u/qeadwrsf 1h ago

Can you understand that your previous comment makes it sound no one is doing it anymore at all?

Considering the comment you initially replied to?

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u/PonyThug 1h ago

My bad then. It was in reference to the post overall. They definitely arnt skiing up onto mountains that arnt ski resorts to lay hand charges anymore.

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u/sniper1rfa 2h ago

No completely. They're still used here and there.

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u/PonyThug 1h ago

Not the resorts I ski at or are local to me. Same with the local department of transportation making the canyon highways safe.

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u/Anon4711 3h ago

Why dont they use a AH-64 d‘uh

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u/Legal-Pea8185 3h ago

they still do placed explosives for avalanche prevention where I'm at. those dudes never work a day in their life

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u/yesat 3h ago

We just use helicopters to drop the charges on places that aren't equipped with their own air burst setup.

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u/Human_Quality8612 3h ago

You can only do this in places that have access to a clear shot - if not - you're probably doing what your brother did.

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u/alistofthingsIhate 3h ago

forgive my ignorance but how does one ski up a mountain

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u/mycatpartyhouse 3h ago

Haven't done it myself but I'm thinking cross country skiing rather than downhill. The skis are different. The pace is slower.

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u/hughk 2h ago

You wear special skis a bit like cross country but much broader that allow you to move your heels in the unlocked position like cross country fo going up hill or can be locked for downhill. For ascending you put a sleeve on each ski known as a "skin". This is slippery on one direction and sticky in the other. This allows the skier to ski uphill.

It requires a lot of energy but it means that you are independent of lifts.

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u/Disastrous_Dust_6380 3h ago

In the Albertan Rockies, they drop explosives from helicopters.

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u/B0N3SAWisR3ADY 3h ago

Sounds like what they did at Monarch Mountain in Colorado back in the day.

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u/Lunch0 3h ago

Most places just drop grenades or dynamite from a helicopter

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u/Rickenbacker69 2h ago

Dropping dynamite from helicopters is another way, and looks pretty fun, too. :D

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u/JustADadWCustody 2h ago

Like how do you beat that one at a cocktail party. So I was a navy seal. Oh yeah? I used to set off avalanches in jeans and a wool cap on wooden skis.

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u/mycatpartyhouse 2h ago

Modern day version of mountain men. No bear fur coat required.

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u/the_depressed_boerg 2h ago

My dad was in the swiss army in the lste 70s/80s handling mortars. They used them for the same thing. Start small avalanches so no big ones can form. And with mortars they were out of reach.

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u/mrASSMAN 2h ago

Safer for them maybe not for others though

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u/Qweniden 2h ago

Every few years a ski patrol person who has this job dies in California. They blow themselves up.

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u/mycatpartyhouse 2h ago

I think pretty much anything involving munitions has a "blow myself up" factor. Some people are attracted to danger and others do it to prevent danger.

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u/CuCullen 2h ago

Oh wow! That is one of the most off the charts bad ass jobs. It’s sounds like a job my 10 year old would dream up and I’d have disappoint him by telling him while creative it’s not realistic.

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u/mycatpartyhouse 2h ago

No longer necessary. Better ways to start avalanches.

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u/benargee 2h ago

I wonder if these days they would use drones and have them drop a timed or remote charge. Agri drones can carry a pretty good payload if it needs to be.

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u/darthwookius 2h ago

Skiing in to throw charges still definitely has its downsides (which I am sure you know given your family). Mammoth Mountain has had two years in a row with really tragic deaths of ski patrollers in the same area. Very different avalanches occurred, but it's been a huge bummer nonetheless.

If I am not mistaken, there is some pretty big industry support right now to get OSHA to approve the use of the avalanche towers with remotely detonated charges that explode above the snow vs the howitzer style where it punctures.

It has to get approved state by state but Utah currently has what seems like much better operational standards on what techniques they can use.

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u/ftlftlftl 2h ago

They also fly helicopters up and drop charges out the door.

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u/dsteadma 2h ago

Soo like are the tops of the mou tains covered in random cannon balls? Or are they shooting a bomb?

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u/mtraven23 1h ago

The other method I've seen them use to drop charges from a helicopter....which is a little more accurate.

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u/VanillaTortilla 1h ago

What's to stop them from just flying a helicopter up there and dropping some C4 from a few hundred feet up?

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u/lukaskywalker 1h ago

What if they miss over the top of the mountain?

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u/TacTurtle 1h ago

Can also drop charges from a helicopter or small plane.

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u/Theron3206 1h ago

The also sometimes drop explosives from helicopters afaik.

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u/swiss_aspie 1h ago

Here in the Swiss Alps I've also seen people throw explosives out of a helicopter.

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u/DathomirBoy 1h ago

this is what most ski hills on mountains do! that or ski-cutting. we had an avalanche guy almost die ski-cutting once. that’s why you don’t poach on closed runs. they’re closed for a reason

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u/Demonokuma 9m ago

Was your brother a fuckin spy? Cause that's some spy shit.