Avalanches Turn Deadly In Utah, New Hampshire

Mount Washington, New Hampshire. A Vermont man died
there earlier this month when he was caught in an avalanche 

It is the heart of avalanche season in most snowy, mountainous areas of the United States, and things have taken a deadly turn lately.  

On Saturday, four people, all in their 20s, died when an avalanche caught two different groups of back country skiers, according to television station KSL. The total number of people buried was eight, but four were able to dig themselves out and try to find the others,  

Two other people died in Utah avalanches in January. Saturday's tragedy was the deadliest Utah avalanche since 1992. 

In New Hampshire, an avalanche on February 2 killed a Vermont back country skier who was buried under 13 feet of snow in the Ammonoosuc Ravine on Mount Washington. A snowstorm that day was contributing to unstable snow on Mount Washington, New England's highest peak. 

According to AccuWeather, we've gone through the deadliest week in the United States for avalanches in over a century.  Fifteen avalanche deaths have been reported in the U.S. in the past seven days or so. 

Avalanches and snow slides are not as common in New England as they are in the larger mountains out west, but they are a risk here in Vermont and elsewhere in the Northeast. Anytime you have steep slopes and weather conditions that destabilize the snow pack, you can get some real trouble. 

The February 2 avalanche was the third fatal one in the Northeast in the past decade.

In March, 2018, six Vermont National Guard members were caught in an avalanche in Smugglers Notch, sending five of them to the hospital. A back country skier reported another avalanche in Smugglers Notch a few days earlier.

These things can also cause property damage. On Christmas, a snow slide smashed into a ski lodge in the Catskills, badly damaging the building. Luckily, nobody was inside at the time.  

Even snow on roofs and piles of snow can be dangerous. 

Just last March, ice fell off a roof up in Hardwick, Vermont and killed a woman. This was really sad.  Just moments before the incident, the woman's husband of 50 years told her, "I don't know how I'd live without you."

This roof hazard was driven home to me the other day. Ice and deep snow slid off my roof in St. Albans in a roar, landing hard where my husband and two dogs had been standing just 30 seconds earlier.  I'm sure the weight of the ice and snow would have killed my dogs and would have seriously injured my husband.

Not much new snow is in the forecast, so of course the risk of trouble from the snow is pretty low. 

Granted, avalanches, snow slides and snowbanks are not the most dangerous things in the world. Lots of things kill more people, unfortunately.  But snow can at times be risky, so it's just one other thing to watch out for in this world.