Look Out Below!

Hello everyone!


I hope your weekend was delightful! Things have been very quiet around here lately. Wednesday, I spent all afternoon over at the hotel painting. We are up on the fourth floor in the main part of the hotel now, so I get to climb 58 stairs a few times a day. (A great workout!) We have to heat individual rooms now, so the hallways are very cold, and I have to stay bundled up. We have quite a bit of snow now, so I have been snowshoeing to the hotel everyday now.


Thursday, there was no work for me to do at the hotel. Jeff had to repair cracks in some of the walls before I could paint. It was very, very cold (negative 10 degrees!), but I bundled up and headed outside anyway. I strapped on my snowshoes and took a tour of the property. Despite the bitter cold, it was a beautiful day. I walked up above the hotel to survey the depth of the snow drifts. The snow drift beside the hotel is above the first floor now. I headed back to the cabin where I shoveled some snow. Then I went inside to thaw out.
Check out the drift below:



Friday, there was still no work for me to do. Lucky me, right? I baked some bread, worked on a puzzle, and read. My friend sent me the first four Harry Potter books and I just started the first one. It was much warmer (in the 30’s) but quite windy and gray.


Saturday, I was hoping to finally do some ice fishing, but the wind had other plans for me. It was a nice and warm 32 degrees, but the wind was icy. It is just not that fun to sit out on the ice completely exposed to the frigid wind. Instead, I stayed inside and watched the playoffs. Good news: My indoor garden is growing quite well. I should have some fresh herbs in just a couple more weeks.


Now, on to the important part, the lesson! As the snow continues to fall out here, the risk of avalanches increases. This week I am going to teach you about avalanches for this reason. Avalanches are amazing to witness if you are far enough away to be out of danger. In the summer of 2008 I hiked up to a backcountry chalet long before it actually opened. As I gained elevation, the amount of snow on the ground increased. It was a relatively warm day in the sixties, and the snow was deep enough to cover the roofs of some of the buildings. While I was up at the chalet I saw seven avalanches erupt from one of the mountains in the distance. I was very far away from the danger, so it was really cool watching them. They were so loud!


In January of last year, a huge avalanche erupted just ten miles from where I work in the summer. The avalanche slid 4,000 vertical feet down the mountain. Heavy rainfall fell on top of a new layer of snow, causing the avalanche. When the snow and debris finally came to a rest, there was a pile of rocks, boulders, and trees twenty feet deep. That’s as tall as a two story building!


An avalanche is an extremely impressive thing to see. The force and speed with which an avalanche moves is incredible. It is also incredibly destructive. An avalanche can shift hundreds of thousands of tons of snow very quickly. And, an avalanche can reach speeds up to 80 miles per hour!


It is very important for Jeff and I to know the conditions in which avalanches are common in order for us to stay safe. If we were caught in an avalanche, the chances of survival would be very low since we are the only ones out here. The best way to protect ourselves is to keep ourselves out of danger in the first place. Now I know that you don’t live in an area where avalanches can occur, but some day you may so they are important and interesting to learn about. So, let’s talk about what causes an avalanche. A snow pack is made up of both strong and weak layers which can make the snow pack unstable. When the strong layer is on the bottom of the snow pack, there is not much of a danger. However, when the weak layer is on the bottom of the snow pack and the top layer of snow is heavy, the snowpack is very unstable and likely to go sliding down the mountain. The angle of the mountain also has a huge effect on avalanche danger. Avalanches most often occur on slopes between 30 degrees and 45 degrees but can also occur on steeper slopes.


Precipitation, wind, and temperature also influence the stability of a snow pack. Of these factors, wind is the most common cause of avalanches because windblown snow can collect ten times faster than falling snow. This creates a very heavy layer of snow above a weak layer and the rest is history. Here in the Many Glacier valley, wind is present nearly every day. This makes the area that I live in prone to avalanches. I have mentioned before that there is an avalanche chute on the way to Swiftcurrent hotel (the property we visit twice a month), and we also pass an avalanche chute on the way to the post office. Jeff and I have to be extra careful at these spots. We stay spaced out and pay careful attention to the snow conditions. Most importantly, we always carry our avalanche safety gear with us which includes locator beacons, shovels, and probes.

Below: I've shown you this picture before, but I didn't eplain it. This is an avalanche shoot coming down from Mt. Altyn. This is the one we pass on the way to Swiftcurrent Hotel.



Below is a picture of our avalanche gear. We must carry a locator beacon that gives off a signal if someone is buried under snow. It also picks up the signals of other beacons so a rescue can be started. We also carry a small shovel and a probe used to poke through the snow to look for victims.

Watch this short video below. It has some great information on avalanches and impressive clips of the avalanches themselves.
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/environment/environment-natural-disasters/avalanches/avalanches.html

Also, check out the two videos on the link below. Both show skiers that set off avalanches.
http://www.fsavalanche.org/Default.aspx?ContentId=4&LinkId=10&ParentLinkId=9

Assignment: Understanding the avalanches and the conditions that cause them. Use the link below to take you to a website that will allow you to create your own avalanches. Pay attention to what factors cause what types of avalanches and to the damage done.
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-disasters/avalanche-interactive.html