TheSnowpit.com News Blog

• Italian Alps Avalanche
• Economics of the Juneau Avalanche
• Global Warming Lawsuit
• Pro Skier Returns after back injury
• Two Snowflakes Alike?

Although winter seems to be over here in Southern California, events continue in the rest of the world. Perhaps the most tragic recent event was the recent fatality of five mountaineers in the Italian Alps. The avalanche apparently descended from a loaded slope above them. Their guide survived, though badly hurt.

Then, returning to the Juneau avalanche aftermath, people are beginning to realize what benefits there might be in analyzing the return period for a climax avalanche. David McClung contributed to the after-analysis at Juneau, pointing out that a bit of money spent on a concrete diverter upslope of the power lines would have saved quite a lot later. Hindsight is 20-20.

In other news, CNN released an article in February describing how the Alaska Native village of Kivalina is suing two dozen oil companies for causing global warming and destroying their native way of life. Much damage has been caused by fall and winter waves coming all the way in to the village where previously ice formed as protection. Reports from the Army Corps of Engineers confirm the damage, and oil, power, and other companies who emit greenhouse gases in Alaska are named in the suit.

The Tahoe Daily ran an article about Roy Tuscany, who burst-fractured his vertebra in 2006 and, with exceptional determination and patience, returned to the slopes this year to ski again. Congratulations - that sure seems to be an unbelievably hard road and something for Roy to be proud of.

And finally, since I'm still moping that summer is ahead of us and not behind, I revisited one of my favorite Slashdot posts on why, by probability theory, two (small) snowflakes out there are probably alike. As the referenced article on Slashdot has since expired, you can read this one from Kenneth Libbrecht on how nano-flakes (the familiar six-sided plate) are actually very much alike, but that once they form more complex structures the probability greatly decreases (and probably disappears).