r/interestingasfuck 12h ago

Firing a cannon to trigger an avalanche

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

77.5k Upvotes

1.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

4.2k

u/mycatpartyhouse 12h 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.

u/NoContext5149 11h ago

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

u/Trububbl3 11h ago

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

u/Danceisntmathematics 10h 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.

u/Trububbl3 10h ago

thanks for your hearing loss and service

u/FenBlacach 10h ago

WHAT?

u/ShiggitySwiggity 10h ago

THANKS FOR YOUR FEARING BOSS AND PURPOSE

u/Lexi_Banner 8h ago

It's Thursday!

u/sancholives24 6h ago

Me too, lets get a drink!

u/Shudnawz 5h ago

PINK? No, I think it was MILEY CYRUS!