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WHISTLER, B.C. - RCMP in Whistler, B.C. are considering laying charges against the only man who survived a deadly avalanche New Year's Day. RCMP Const. Graham Morgan said the two men went right past a permanent sign warning of closed terrain on the popular ski hill. "We are investigating the potential for criminal charges, of criminal negligence, based on the fact that they...clearly they went into an area that was permanently closed." Police believe the men triggered the avalanche in a remote and dangerous area away from the regular, groomed ski runs. Both men were swept over a cliff by...

2,000 Stranded Amid Colo. Avalanche ThreatMotorists Warned Stay Away From I-70; 9 Shelters Opened UPDATED: 10:04 am PST December 31, 2007 DENVER -- The threat of avalanches is keeping more than 2,000 travelers stranded at Red Cross shelters in Colorado. That threat is the reason more than 60 miles of Interstate 70 is closed west of Denver, and it isn't clear when the busy highway will reopen. Officials were forced to close the highway overnight because of the heavy winds and snow. The closures started around 6 p.m. Sunday and extended about 125 miles. CDOT asked motorists to avoid the...

KUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Oct. 31, 2007 – Under the cover of darkness, soldiers from Company A, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry (Airborne), air-assaulted about three miles south of their forward operating bases in the Pech River Valley earlier this month as part of Operation Rock Avalanche. Army Sgt. Chad Mohr (left) watches rounds land on target as Army Spc. David Hooker fires the MK19 machine gun at a known insurgent position Oct. 24, 2007, during Operation Rock Avalanche. The "Dragon Platoon" soldiers of Destined Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry (Airborne), were occupying a ridgeline between the Pech and Shuryak river...

<p>DENVER (AP) -- Colorado highway officials say a massive avalanche buried several cars in Berthoud Pass about 60 miles west of Denver and sent other vehicles over the edge.</p> <p>A huge avalanche buried cars Saturday and may have pushed others over the edge Saturday on U.S. 40 near 11,307-foot-high Berthoud Pass, Colorado highway officials said.</p>

Kabul, Nov 3 "I thought I was going to die — the earth was raining from the skies," a Taliban survivor told the Sun while describing how an entire unit was buried alive in a strike by US B-52s. Osman Rakhim, 23, said the explosions caused by the giant US bombers started a landslide on his mountainside position. He said dozens of troops were killed when hundreds of tons of earth and rock came down on top of them. Rakhim wandered away from the carnage in a daze and later surrendered to the Northern Alliance. He said a whole unit ...

Four Russian mountaineers have gone missing in Pakistan on the world's second highest mountain, K2.

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. - An avalanche struck the Mammoth Mountain resort Monday and three people suffered minor injuries, an official said. Searchers were trying to determine if there were any other victims. The Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center had posted a warning of "considerable" danger on Monday. The avalanche occurred shortly after 2 p.m., said Fire Chief Brent Harper. More than 200 people were searching an area of a ski run in the Climax section of the resort, which has had record snowfall this season. The Mammoth Web site reported the resort closed operations for the day at 2:30 p.m. It...

KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) — Rescuers recovered the bodies Sunday of two snowmobilers who disappeared a day earlier in an avalanche west of Glacier National Park, officials said.Christopher Schmalz, 21, and Danelle Bloom, 22, had been missing since Saturday afternoon, said Flathead County Undersheriff Mike Meehan.Authorities were alerted to the avalanche by a third snowmobiler who escaped, Meehan said. Rescuers searched for Schmalz and Bloom until around dusk Saturday and resumed the search Sunday morning.The effort was suspended overnight because of "extreme avalanche danger," Meehan said.

KATHMANDU (AFP) - Seven French climbers and 11 Nepalese mountain guides were killed in a massive avalanche last week in the northwest of Nepal, the head of the Himalayan Rescue Association said. "All the team members of the French Mount Kangaru expedition have died," Bikram Neupane, president of the Himalayan Rescue Association, told reporters Monday in the capital after he visited the site and talked to rescue teams. The private association sent a 10-member rescue team to find survivors of the October 20 avalanche, Neupane said. The lead rescuer, Padam Ghale, told him that the snow depth precluded finding anyone...

Jackie Caplan-Auerbach was checking earthquake activity around Alaska volcanoes from her Anchorage office on Sept. 14, a routine she performs every day at the Alaska Volcano Observatory, when she noticed a strange seismic signal on Mount Spurr. A large shock to the Earth -- not as abrupt as an earthquake -- had happened somewhere in Alaska. When Caplan-Auerbach saw the odd signal was even stronger on Mount Wrangell, she suspected there was a great avalanche somewhere in the restless corner of Alaska where the Panhandle of Southeast meets the rest of the state. There was.

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Friday, March 25, 2005 - 12:00 AM | UDOT admits it was at fault in backyard artillery accident Michael Rigert DAILY HERALD The Utah Department of Transportation said it was most definitely at fault when an artillery round that easily could have killed several people landed in a Pleasant Grove family's back yard Wednesday afternoon. The round was meant for avalanche control in Provo Canyon. Tom Hudachko, a Utah Department of Transportation spokesman, said crews were conducting avalanche control with the cannon in the vicinity of Slide Canyon and Lost Creek when the 105 mm howitzer projectile was launched over...

Mt. Everest Avalanche Injures Climbers Friday, May 06, 2005 KATMANDU, Nepal — Medics in a makeshift tent hospital on Mount Everest (search) on Friday treated six climbers injured in an avalanche, while rescuers hoping to evacuate the victims in helicopters were turned back by snowfall and strong wind. No one was killed by the avalanche early Thursday, which swept through the first of four camps set up between Everest's base camp and the mountain's 29,035-foot summit. Six climbers received injuries ranging from bruises to a possible broken back, reports from the mountain said. The victims' nationalities were still unclear. They...

    Avalanche Control Round Lands in BackyardUDOT admitting today that a howitzer shell that exploded in the backyard of a Pleasant Grove home was from one of their avalanche control cannons.   (KSL News) -- A 105 howitzer round that exploded in a Pleasant Grove backyard came from an avalanche cannon in Provo Canyon. UDOT Deputy Director Carlos Braceras says they shot eight shells Wednesday afternoon in the canyon, but the last one appears to have been over packed with gunpowder. UDOT says they'll take full responsibility and compensate the homeowners for all damage caused. They're also suspending indefinitely...

 MONA, Utah - A hiker fell about 1,000 feet down a mountain side, riding an avalanche feet-first — and suffered only minor injuries. "Extremely lucky," said Juab County Sheriff Alden Orme. Mark Thomas and two companions were hiking on a ridge near Mount Nebo on Saturday when snow gave way beneath them, they told police. His friends did not fall, but Thomas slid about 1,000 feet, triggering an avalanche, Orme said. Thomas, 21, of Salt Lake City, told police that he rode the cascading snow feet-first, and came to a stop partially buried in a canyon. His friends went for...

STOWE, Vt. (AP) A lifelong skier was killed when an avalanche carried him off a mountain while he and three friends were making a film about extreme skiing. Alec Stall, 23, was being filmed doing sweeping turns down a steep chute just before the accident Monday on Mount Mansfield. His friends believe Stall may have caught a ski tip in a crust of snow and fell 30 feet from a cliff edge. Above him, a slab of snow broke loose and created a river of snow that swept Stall off the mountain. ``I saw this huge rush of snow coming...

HOW IT WORKS AVALANCHE rescue beacons have become standard equipment for many skiers and snowmobilers who go into wilderness areas or beyond the boundaries of ski resorts. The small radio transmitters, strapped to the body, can aid rescuers in locating someone buried under several feet of snow.But not everyone who enters the backcountry uses the devices. Shane Maixner, a 27-year-old snowboarder from Sandpoint, Idaho, was not wearing one when he was caught in an avalanche on Jan. 14 in an out-of-bounds area near the Canyons resort in Utah. A team of rescuers found his body two days later."With that accident...

It was about two years ago when I was talking to my friend Tony Blankley of the Washington Times and Fox News, and commented that someday George Bush’s greatness as a president would be compared to Ronald Reagan’s. Tony’s response floored me: “You know, Jack, someday it might be the other way around.” The trifecta of the last two weeks – the Second Inaugural Address, the elections in Iraq, the State of the Union – provide an undeniable demonstration of Tony’s prescience. Yet next December 10 in Oslo, Norway, there will be another undeniable demonstration – this one of undiluted...

A Slovak man trapped in his car under an avalanche freed himself by drinking 60 bottles of beer and urinating on the snow to melt it. Rescue teams found Richard Kral drunk and staggering along a mountain path four days after his Audi car was buried in the Slovak Tatra mountains. He told them that after the avalanche, he had opened his car window and tried to dig his way out. But as he dug with his hands, he realised the snow would fill his car before he managed to break through. He had 60 half-litre bottles of beer in...

Ananova: Man peed way out of avalanche A Slovak man trapped in his car under an avalanche freed himself by drinking 60 bottles of beer and urinating on the snow to melt it. Rescue teams found Richard Kral drunk and staggering along a mountain path four days after his Audi car was buried in the Slovak Tatra mountains. He told them that after the avalanche, he had opened his car window and tried to dig his way out. But as he dug with his hands, he realised the snow would fill his car before he managed to break through. He...