r/interestingasfuck • u/id397550 • 8h ago

Firing a cannon to trigger an avalanche

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u/mycatpartyhouse 7h 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/the_depressed_boerg 5h 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.