No Sympathy
A little tiny miracle—a snowflake. Beautiful, innocuous, nothing about it that’s harmful. And God said “HA!".
I saw a special on Discovery Channel about all the efforts smart people make to allow other idiots move around in the winter without being buried alive. They shoot artillery shells and drop bombs from helicopters to start pre-emptive avalanches.
One road in Western Canada was so bad that they finally said “fuck it” and built a chute to allow the inevitable avalanches to pass over the top of it.
It seems that mountains have to be within a narrow range of steepness to allow avalanches. Too steep and the snow can’t build up; too flat and nothing moves. What’s really bad is a layer of ice with snow on top—it’s all set too take off.
A big avalanche can take out huge old trees. The concussion will mercifully kill you before you are buried.
Posted by Oink
01/17/2005 at 11:54 AM
Out here in soggy S.Cal. If a rescue is required due to your own stupidity, you get the bill for the whole team of rescuers and their equipment. ie: use of helicopter; $2400.00
Posted by DR@HDfixit
01/17/2005 at 12:44 PM
Abject stupidity! Mother Nature’s filter in the gene pool.
