What the hell? Well, when you have to control avalanches in Kazakhstan (a former Soviet republic in Central Asia), you go with what you got. Watch the unorthodox technique of these patrolman as they launch what appears to be bottle rockets and fireworks up into the slope directly above them, then scramble up the chairlift tower like a bunch of scared squirrels running from a cat in the yard after the slope lets loose. Howitzer cannons, drones, certified ski patrol workers–Europeans and North Americans need to remember how lucky they are in the world of avalanche safety.
Here’s a translation from Austrian Peter Weber, an avalanche expert on hand to help: “Work in explosive Shymbulak, Kazakhstan. It wasn’t always easy and safe to blow up avalanches. Especially with the simple resources were available to us. We blew up with pyrotechnics. Hence the extreme limitation in the coverage. Everything went well and it was funny too.”
And straight up gnarly.
