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Archive Index - All Editions

Avalanche leaves Chignik AK without power for 4 days

The avalanche spilled across one of Chignik’s main roads on the night of February 16 cutting off some homes and the airport from the rest of the community. Chignik’s mayor, Robert Carpenter, said that there were no deaths or injuries from the avalanche, but that it diddestroy a power box, leaving the community’s roughly 100 residents without power. The community lost phone service as well.

Chignik’s runway was too soft to land planes at the time, so the Alaska DoT arranged for a repair crew to travel to the community by helicopter. Bad weather prevented the crew from reaching the community for four days; the crew restored power on Tuesday evening. Carpenter said that the phone service company GCI also arrived on Tuesday and restored service later that night.
More ... (KDLG - Public Radio for Alaska's Bristol Bay)

Four Killed In Avalanche In France

Four people were killed on Sunday in an avalanche in the mountainous Auvergne region of central France, local authorities said. The avalanche took place at 1,600 metres (5,250 feet) of altitude above the village of Mont-Dore in an area known as the Val d'Enfer, the prefecture of the Puy-de-Dome department said in a statement. Three other people were also slightly injured after a major search operation mobilising some 50 people, it added. Local daily La Montagne said that those hit by the avalanche were ski mountaineers from a nearby club who had gone on an off-piste route with a guide. The mountains in the Auvergne, many of which are of volcanic origin, are less high than those in the Alps or Pyrenees further south but can be highly remote with extensive snow cover.
More ...(Piste Hors)

Snowmobiler killed in avalanche in Alberta

More details will be posted in the Avalanche Center archives as soon as possible.

An Alberta man has died after being buried by an avalanche while snowmobiling in the backcountry near Castle Mountain ski resort in the Alberta Rockies close to the B.C. border, RCMP say. The man, whom RCMP have identified as a 46-year-old from Magrath, Alta., was snowmobiling with another man and two children on Saturday, when an avalanche occurred at approximately 1 p.m. MT. The slide was triggered at the head of Gardiner Creek, in the Castle Wildland Provincial Park, roughly 13 kilometres south of Castle Mountain Resort. In a statement, RCMP said the two children were able to escape with one of the men, but the other was buried in the snow.
Source ... (Yahoo News)

10th anniversary of Missoula's fatal Mount Jumbo avalanche

There should be a file in the Avalanche Center archives of material available at the time of this avalanche.

An avalanche tore into a Missoula neighborhood on February 28, 2014, leaving destruction and heartache in its wake. An urban avalanche hit the Rattlesnake neighborhood, destroying one home, burying several people, and taking the life of one person. We are remembering who was lost and who came together at the base of Mount Jumbo with a story by former MTN reporter Jackie Quinn that aired on the night of the avalanche.
Source ... (8KPAX Missoula)

Avalanche kills American in Japanese backcountry

Tokyo — Police in the city of Myoko, in Japan's central Niigata region, said Wednesday that an American man in his 30s was killed by an avalanche in a backcountry area of Mount Mitahara. Local police received calls on Wednesday afternoon that three or four people had been caught in an avalanche in the area. According to Myoko city police, there were three others — New Zealand, Scottish and Japanese nationals — with the U.S. man at the time.
Source ... (CBS News)