Updated: Stevens Pass just released their behind-the-scenes video of avalanche control work on Wednesday. And it’s mind-blowing. (Pun intended.)
The video explains how the crew drops a bomb on the mountain to trigger the avalanche.
“We’re throwing a bomb out of a moving helicopter,” Chris Brixey of the Stevens Pass Pro Patrol explains.
After the fuse is lit, there’s a short countdown before the bomb is dropped. “That’s plenty of time to be holding a lit charge,” Brixey said.
After the bomb is dropped, a massive avalanche is triggered.
“The whole thing just shattered like a pane of glass and started sliding down and it was just amazing to be having a bird’s eye view, to be looking down on that as it happened,” Brixey said. “And then the slide went under the bird and it hit the lake and started pulling down some pretty big sized tree. It was just powerful, so powerful”
The video at the top shows the behind-the-scenes story and the video below shows just the avalanche.
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