| OCR Text |
Show Until 1950, our snow safety program was confined to winter sports areas under the jurisdiction of the Forest Service. Our principal objective was the protection of human life and it doesn't take a slide of great size to kill a man. Thus our priorities of work were determined for us: first, immediate recognition of hazard; second, reduction of hazard; third, basic research if there was any time left for it. Finally there is a difference in objective. Swiss avalanche research concentrates on the snowpack and the changes within it which produce avalanches of maximum size. This is because the most important problem in the Alps is to protect the fixed installations of a highly developed country from these major slides. Protecting the fixed installations protects the majority of the people. But in this country we are not cramped for space and have no such concentration of improvements in hazardous locations as the Swiss. We learned by observation that about 80 percent of the slides large enough to endanger life run either during or immediately after storms. We therefore decided to concentrate our efforts on analyzing the weather factors which produce these direct action avalanches ( Figure 2), This is not to say that we discounted the importance of structural changes in the snowpack which cause delayed action avalanches. Delayed action hazard is an acute problem in our high alpine zone and we began work on it with the establishment of the observation station at Berthoud Pass, Colorado, in 1950. Publication of " The Alta Avalanche Studies" brought about videspread interest in the avalanche hazard problem in this country. This interest was further stimulated by a series of severe winters beginning with 1948- 49, attended by numerous avalanche fatalities and much property damage. The areas protected by snow rangers demonstrated their ability to go through these winters unscathed. This led to requests for assistance on avalanche hazard problems from many sources and in 1950 our program of work began to expand. By this time, with the assistance of the U. S. Weather Bureau, we had installed a considerable amount of research equipment. Our winter administration schools for selected men were building up a pool of trained personnel. Finally, the development of numerous alpine type ski areas following World War II led to the establishment of observation stations covering the full range of alpine climate in this country. The Berthoud Pass station in the high alpine zone of Colorado was set up by the Forest Service in 1950 following a season of exploratory work by Whitney Borland of the National Ski Patrol. The coastal alpine zone station in Washington was originally located at Mt. Baker in 1949. It was later moved to Stevens Pass and went into full operation in 1951. The Three Alpine Zones These three snow and avalanche observation stations were chosen according to the characteristics of the alpine zones described by Andre' Roch of the Swiss Avalanche Institute. In general terms they are as follows: - 12 - |
