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By John McAdams via wideopenspaces.com

Using explosions to start an avalanche under controlled conditions is a common practice all over the world, including in the United States. However, these Russian Army Soldiers in North Ossetia got a little more than they bargained for when using their heavy artillery to trigger an avalanche.

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31 COMMENTS

  1. I could probably spend hours being entertained by YouTube videos of things in Russian that did not go as planned. Screw ups with cranes and heavy equipment especially.

    Every time I start to think Northern Virginia drivers must be the worst anywhere, I think of all the dash cam videos from Russia, and I feel a little more fortunate.

        • might have.

          my comment was meant as irony; russian cryillic alphabet was adapted from the greek. so i brushed-off an old saying to point out that i can’t make heads or tails of the comment.

        • I remember just enough Russian from my old writing buddy’s family to realize the one genius is yelling, “It’s coming here!”

  2. The Alta, Utah ski patrol perfected avalanche control by using explosives and learned to size them accordingly to produce controlled release of accumulated snowpack, and they learned to release pressure gradually rather than all at once. Putting a smaller charge at the bottom half of the slope would have allowed a “dam” to collect at the bottom, well before it approached the power lines, road and structures, which would stop the snow from the top from reaching the improved areas after setting off a smaller charge up top.

    What a country of dangerous dumbasses. I did enjoy the flash of electricity when the snow hit the power lines. The sight of the men slowly backing up a step or two when the snow was getting closer is especially telling of their collective ignorance.

  3. I’m glad nobody was hurt, but leave it to the Russians to make things go wildly out of control.

    And Happy Independence Day!

  4. Oh boy….the Ruskies know more about snow than any country on earth and are quite adept at handling it…

    But it’s ‘not nice to fool[with]mother nature!’

    Do not ‘judge’ any more that that.

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