High Speed Avalanches

Although an avalanche can mean the fall of any material e.g. snow, soil and even rocks, in common usage it generally refers to a falling mass of ice and snow which breaks away from the side of a mountain or cliff and surges down at great speed.

So how fast do they really travel ? Well a dry snow avalanche can travel at speeds of up to 225 mph with a force equaling that of a hurricane. What’s more interesting is that as the powdery snow hurtles downhill a further blast of air just as destructive may be sent out ahead of the avalanche. Wet snow avalanches on the other hand travel much slower at around 20 mph, this however doesn’t make them any less deadly.

The greatest avalanches recorded tend to occur on the high mountains of the Himalayas however those which cause the highest death toll fall in the populated valleys of the Alps.