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Weatherwatch: A brief history of lethal avalanches Weatherwatch: A brief history of lethal avalanches
(7 months later)
Avalanches in the Scottish Highlands have claimed the lives of seven people so far this year, one of the worst winters on record for avalanches in Scotland. In fact, there are around 400 to 500 avalanches reported in Scotland's main mountain climbing areas each year, and in the worst season in recent times, the winter of 1994-95, there were 13 deaths in the Highlands, more than in Canada in the same period.Avalanches in the Scottish Highlands have claimed the lives of seven people so far this year, one of the worst winters on record for avalanches in Scotland. In fact, there are around 400 to 500 avalanches reported in Scotland's main mountain climbing areas each year, and in the worst season in recent times, the winter of 1994-95, there were 13 deaths in the Highlands, more than in Canada in the same period.
An avalanche can rush down a slope with up to one million tons of snow at over 120mph – the fastest measured one was 217mph at Glärnisch, Switzerland on 6 March 1898, which swept 4 miles down into a valley and up the side of a mountain opposite, although no one was killed.An avalanche can rush down a slope with up to one million tons of snow at over 120mph – the fastest measured one was 217mph at Glärnisch, Switzerland on 6 March 1898, which swept 4 miles down into a valley and up the side of a mountain opposite, although no one was killed.
Avalanches have also caused huge disasters in history and when Hannibal tried to invade Rome by crossing the Italian Alps in 218 BC, he lost 16,000 troops in avalanches. During the First World War, fighting between Austrian and Italian armies dug in across the Tyrol Alps set off lethal avalanches triggered by explosions. "The most frightening enemy was nature itself… entire platoons were hit, smothered, buried without a trace, without a cry, with no other sound other than that made by the gigantic white mass itself," wrote an eyewitness. About 60,000 men were thought to have been killed in the avalanches, and bodies of those buried soldiers are still uncovered from thawing glaciers and snow fields in the Alps.Avalanches have also caused huge disasters in history and when Hannibal tried to invade Rome by crossing the Italian Alps in 218 BC, he lost 16,000 troops in avalanches. During the First World War, fighting between Austrian and Italian armies dug in across the Tyrol Alps set off lethal avalanches triggered by explosions. "The most frightening enemy was nature itself… entire platoons were hit, smothered, buried without a trace, without a cry, with no other sound other than that made by the gigantic white mass itself," wrote an eyewitness. About 60,000 men were thought to have been killed in the avalanches, and bodies of those buried soldiers are still uncovered from thawing glaciers and snow fields in the Alps.
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