The videos posted to this channel since ~2015 are by Bruce Jamieson and colleagues. Some of the earlier videos on this channel are links to videos made by Bruce Jamieson and ASARC colleagues (snowavalanchearchive.com). The links to all these videos can be shared freely and the videos used for any purpose, including commercially, provided the content and authorship are not altered.

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During re-construction of a powerline tower in northwest BC in February 1994, six people were stranded in a lunch shack for four nights. The shack was buried by an avalanche on the third night. In this video, two of the stranded, avalanche technician Hector MacKenzie and linesman Trevor James, recount being stranded and its impact on them. Another of the avalanche technicians Scott Flavelle provides some background on the powerline and the terrain it runs through. Recorded in January 2025 then edited. Uploaded 2025-03-10. #powerline #kemano #avalanche #shack #workersafety #tower #snowstorm #stranded #ptsd

From Explosives to Catenaries - Scott Flavelle talks about the avalanches and avalanche mitigation along the powerline from Kemano to Kitimat. #avalanche #mitigation #catenary #scottflavelle #tower #powerline #transmissionline #kemano #kitimat Thanks to Greg Johnson / 6 Point Engineering for advice and photos. Resources: 2007 Winter Avalanches on the Kemano Kitimat Powerline. 2008. R. Gee, C. Stethem, A. Jones, K. Fogolin, M. Gadja. Proceedings of the 2008 International Snow Science Workshop. A Story of the Engineering of the Kemano-Kitimat Transmission Line - a transmission line that defined careers. Peter Catchpole, Self-published, 2020. Flavelle, S. and H. MacKenzie, 1996. Powerline Pass – B.C. North Coast Mountain, The history of avalanche damage, mitigation and a modern epic. In Proceedings of the International Snow Science Workshop, Banff, Alberta, Canada, 6-10 October 1996. Canadian Avalanche Association, Revelstoke, BC, Canada, 268-270.

An introduction to snow avalanche dynamics and impact. Includes avalanches in motion but no models and almost no math. Intended for anyone interested in avalanche science, early career avalanche practitioners, and Christian Jaedicke's students (perhaps as pre-course material?) Bruce Jamieson and Christian Jaedicke. October 2021.

Abstract: Snow avalanches differ from other slope hazards such as debris flows and landslides in ways that affect mapping and mitigation. Snow avalanches start as a result of failure in a bonded granular material in which the bonds are close to the melting point. Periods of instability are often limited to hours or days. In contrast to other slope hazards, explosives are effective triggers of unstable snow, thereby shortening periods of instability and allowing parts of ski areas or transportation corridors to be quickly re-opened. Where snow avalanche occurrences observations are available for a decade or more, this often results in better occurrence and runout records than for other slope hazards. For snow avalanches, hazard mapping thresholds based on a low annual probability (e.g. Pa ≤ 10-3) are especially uncertain and problematic for hazard mapping. A presentation video for GeoVirtual, September 2020. Bruce Jamieson, Dave Gauthier and Chris Wilbur. CC BY-ND

Climate change has been a focus for the avalanche world over the last few years, and our group has recently contributed two papers to the discussion, which we have summarised here. They both look at avalanches and how they have changed over the last 30 - 50 years. Before we get into those, let’s take a minute to explore why this is such a tricky topic, and why it is important to understand better. So why is it tricky? There are at least three reasons as to why it is hard to find a trend amongst the noise for avalanches: 1) It is not realistic to attribute any change in avalanche activity to any one single weather factor. We all know that avalanches depend on combinations of precipitation, wind, temperature etc. 2) Avalanche activity occurs on a weather system scale of days, rather than climate scale of decades. This is further complicated by atmospheric phenomena such as El Nino or PDO. 3) Third, avalanche-related data are often incomplete, inconsistent or spread across vast geographic regions. For example, in Canada, we can go back only about 50 years for reliable written records. Unfortunately the records are usually in populated areas where there has been human interference or involvement in the natural behaviour of avalanches through explosives (mountain passes) or compaction (ski hills). And why is it important to understand? Apart from the obvious concern we all have for the alpine environment, we also need to consider that avalanche risk assessment and mitigation techniques assume that avalanche occurrence is stationary, meaning it doesn’t change over time. We use return periods to design hazard maps, defense structures and industrial operations plans. Often these return periods are derived from historical data, which we assume won’t change into the future. Studies such as these will help us decide if changes in explosive control may be required or if the boundaries of hazard zones should be adjusted.

This presentation is similar to one presented at the ISSW 2013 in Grenoble France. The paper corresponding paper is posted at http://www.ucalgary.ca/asarc/issw2013/Iso31k_Jamieson

This is a sequel to the video on quantitative risk analysis for a structure in an avalanche path.

This video identifies some key differences between snow avalanches and other slope hazards. Hopefully, the video (and the book on Planning Methods for Snow Avalanche Risk) will help those who plan for various slope hazards better understand snow avalanche hazards.