The Snowy Torrents : Avalanche Accidents in the United States, 1910-1966

Each winter many snow avalanches fall in the mountains. Some bring destruction to property and terror to those unfortunate enough to be caught in the sliding snow. Reports of some of these reach the Alta Avalanche Study Center on the Wasatch National Forest in Utah. The following summaries are drawn from this master file for avalanche data maintained at Alta by the U.S. Forest Service. The reason for compiling these accident summaries is to analyze both the causes which led to the accidents and the rescue efforts which followed. By studying these, we can learn some of the factors that caused the accidents and, hopefully, prevent similar ones in the future. Each accident summary is followed by our commentary.