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An avalanche smashed into a Pakistani army base on a Himalayan glacier along the Indian border on Saturday, burying around 100 soldiers, the military said.

No one was reported hurt, so you can relax and watch these crazy videos of a ginormous, late-afternoon, wet avalanche at St. Francois-Longchamps, France, in the Savoie, destroying a quad chairlift. Some 70 people were on the lift and, incredibly, not one was injured and all were evacuated within two and a half hours.

STEVENS PASS, Wash. - Three people were killed Sunday in a deadly avalanche near Stevens Pass that swept down on three group of skiers, officials said. And in a separate incident, a snowboarder was killed Sunday at Alpental after plunging over a cliff.

Three people are dead in an avalanche just outside the Stevens Pass ski resort, and a snowboarder was killed in another avalanche in an out-of-bounds area in the Alpental Valley at Snoqualmie Pass, authorities said. Earlier Sunday, the King County Sheriff’s Office said two were dead and as many as eight were missing in the Stevens Pass avalanche, but later changed the death toll from two to three. KING-TV reported that the individuals who had been unaccounted for in that avalanche have since been accounted for.

First Lady Michelle Obama arrived in Aspen on Friday afternoon and is here with her daughters for a ski vacation. Few details about her trip were available. Sources said she is staying at the home of Jim and Paula Crown, owners of the Aspen Skiing Co. She is reportedly skiing at Buttermilk today, where the Crowns, of Chicago, own a home on the Tiehack side. Several people have known about the “low-key” vacation, with the Secret Service in town for the past few days scoping out places for the family to relax and enjoy what the resort has to offer....

A dog feared dead after he was swept away in an avalanche that killed his owner turned up four days later at the Montana motel where they had stayed before going backcountry skiing. Search and rescue team member Bill Whittle said he was 'positive' that the Welsh corgi – named Oly – had been buried in Saturday's avalanche and had managed to dig his way out. 'The avalanche guys were up there on Monday investigating and they were looking for the dog too and never seen any signs,' he said. But on Wednesday afternoon, Oly showed up exhausted and hungry...

Four days after an avalanche killed his master and buried him alive, a little Welsh Corgi dog named Oly walked out of the wilderness and into the arms of Cooke City rescuers, who brought him home to his grieving family in Bozeman. “It’s bittersweet,” said Kerry Corcoran Gaillard, whose husband, David Gaillard, was killed by an avalanche Saturday when the couple was cross-country skiing. “I was excited” to get Oly back, she said, “but it amplified the loss of Dave a little bit. You automatically wish it could be Dave.” David Gaillard, 44, was the Defenders of Wildlife Northern Rockies...

NEW YORK – For TV viewers, this cutthroat election year is a riot of attack ads and media saturation made possible by big-money donors. For TV stations, it's a stimulus package. One research group expects TV political spending to hit a record $3 billion. The windfall may continue well past Election Day because regular advertisers are getting squeezed out of the schedule and could spend their ad budgets later. Coming out of a recession that put some broadcasters in or near bankruptcy protection, political spending is emerging as a critical — but temporary — source of revenue. Several factors created...

SEATTLE (AP) — An avalanche on Mount Rainier sent a mass of snow cascading down a slope early Saturday, burying at least four people, a national park spokeswoman said, and at least one climber remained missing more than 12 hours later. A search was under way on Mount Rainier, some 60 miles east of Seattle, for the missing climber and a skier reported in the area who may also have been missing, said Mount Rainier National Park spokeswoman Patti Wold. At about 4:45 a.m. Saturday, several climbing teams were overtaken by the slab avalanche that occurred at 12,500-foot level when...

Poor weather will prevent state troopers from searching today for a Conoco Phillips Alaska employee missing in the avalanche that killed company president Jim Bowles on Saturday, a spokeswoman for the Alaska State Troopers says. The avalanche that killed Bowles occurred in the Grandview area wilderness between Girdwood and Seward on the Kenai Peninsula. Bowles was with a group of about 12 snowmachiners when the avalanche roared down a slope. His body was recovered before nightfall, while the second rider also caught in the slide, Alan Gage, was missing and presumed killed, troopers said. Bowles has headed Conoco Phillips Alaska...

Tyler James Johnson, a Caltech graduate student who fled the U.S. after authorities identified him as an alleged conspirator in a case involving arson attacks at several San Gabriel Valley car dealerships six years ago, has died. He was 30. According to an obituary posted on the website of the Michigan-based Staffan-Mitchell Funeral Home, Johnson was “killed from a fall due to an avalanche” on Dec. 26 during a solo expedition in the Corsican mountains of France. Johnson became a fugitive after being named as a co-conspirator in the August 2003 firebombing of eight sport-utility vehicles at a West Covina...

An ice avalanche has killed at least 11 climbers on Pakistan's K-2 mountain, CNN.com reported Sunday. Mountaineer Fredrick Strang said at a K-2 base camp that the climbers were descending the Himalayan mountain, the second highest peak in the world, when the avalanche destroyed a fixed rope that the group was using to get to the summit. K-2 is 28,250 feet tall -- about 785 feet shorter than the world's highest peak, Mount Everest -- but climbers generally regard K-2 as the more difficult to summit. Roughly 22 climbers were in the group trying to summit K-2 on Friday night,...

Elise Pringle immediately called the power company when she heard news that utility rates could quintuple after a series of avalanches cut off Juneau's source of cheap hydro power. "I was squawking," Pringle said Thursday. "If we get hit that hard, we will go under." Pringle, who struggles to pay the medical bills for a child with cerebral palsy and a husband with cancer, called Alaska Electric Light and Power three times on Wednesday. She called the governor's office twice. "I said 'What are you going to do? '" said Pringle, shocked by news that her monthly $200 utility bill...

A new avalanche shut down Snoqualmie Pass a second time Wednesday after an avalanche westbound lanes near Hyak, closing part of the road less than four hours after it had reopened after the longest closure in six years.

WHISTLER, B.C. - RCMP in Whistler, B.C. are considering laying charges against the only man who survived a deadly avalanche New Year's Day. RCMP Const. Graham Morgan said the two men went right past a permanent sign warning of closed terrain on the popular ski hill. "We are investigating the potential for criminal charges, of criminal negligence, based on the fact that they...clearly they went into an area that was permanently closed." Police believe the men triggered the avalanche in a remote and dangerous area away from the regular, groomed ski runs. Both men were swept over a cliff by...

2,000 Stranded Amid Colo. Avalanche ThreatMotorists Warned Stay Away From I-70; 9 Shelters Opened UPDATED: 10:04 am PST December 31, 2007 DENVER -- The threat of avalanches is keeping more than 2,000 travelers stranded at Red Cross shelters in Colorado. That threat is the reason more than 60 miles of Interstate 70 is closed west of Denver, and it isn't clear when the busy highway will reopen. Officials were forced to close the highway overnight because of the heavy winds and snow. The closures started around 6 p.m. Sunday and extended about 125 miles. CDOT asked motorists to avoid the...

KUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Oct. 31, 2007 – Under the cover of darkness, soldiers from Company A, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry (Airborne), air-assaulted about three miles south of their forward operating bases in the Pech River Valley earlier this month as part of Operation Rock Avalanche. Army Sgt. Chad Mohr (left) watches rounds land on target as Army Spc. David Hooker fires the MK19 machine gun at a known insurgent position Oct. 24, 2007, during Operation Rock Avalanche. The "Dragon Platoon" soldiers of Destined Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry (Airborne), were occupying a ridgeline between the Pech and Shuryak river...

<p>DENVER (AP) -- Colorado highway officials say a massive avalanche buried several cars in Berthoud Pass about 60 miles west of Denver and sent other vehicles over the edge.</p> <p>A huge avalanche buried cars Saturday and may have pushed others over the edge Saturday on U.S. 40 near 11,307-foot-high Berthoud Pass, Colorado highway officials said.</p>

Kabul, Nov 3 "I thought I was going to die — the earth was raining from the skies," a Taliban survivor told the Sun while describing how an entire unit was buried alive in a strike by US B-52s. Osman Rakhim, 23, said the explosions caused by the giant US bombers started a landslide on his mountainside position. He said dozens of troops were killed when hundreds of tons of earth and rock came down on top of them. Rakhim wandered away from the carnage in a daze and later surrendered to the Northern Alliance. He said a whole unit ...

Four Russian mountaineers have gone missing in Pakistan on the world's second highest mountain, K2.

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. - An avalanche struck the Mammoth Mountain resort Monday and three people suffered minor injuries, an official said. Searchers were trying to determine if there were any other victims. The Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center had posted a warning of "considerable" danger on Monday. The avalanche occurred shortly after 2 p.m., said Fire Chief Brent Harper. More than 200 people were searching an area of a ski run in the Climax section of the resort, which has had record snowfall this season. The Mammoth Web site reported the resort closed operations for the day at 2:30 p.m. It...

KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) — Rescuers recovered the bodies Sunday of two snowmobilers who disappeared a day earlier in an avalanche west of Glacier National Park, officials said.Christopher Schmalz, 21, and Danelle Bloom, 22, had been missing since Saturday afternoon, said Flathead County Undersheriff Mike Meehan.Authorities were alerted to the avalanche by a third snowmobiler who escaped, Meehan said. Rescuers searched for Schmalz and Bloom until around dusk Saturday and resumed the search Sunday morning.The effort was suspended overnight because of "extreme avalanche danger," Meehan said.

KATHMANDU (AFP) - Seven French climbers and 11 Nepalese mountain guides were killed in a massive avalanche last week in the northwest of Nepal, the head of the Himalayan Rescue Association said. "All the team members of the French Mount Kangaru expedition have died," Bikram Neupane, president of the Himalayan Rescue Association, told reporters Monday in the capital after he visited the site and talked to rescue teams. The private association sent a 10-member rescue team to find survivors of the October 20 avalanche, Neupane said. The lead rescuer, Padam Ghale, told him that the snow depth precluded finding anyone...

Jackie Caplan-Auerbach was checking earthquake activity around Alaska volcanoes from her Anchorage office on Sept. 14, a routine she performs every day at the Alaska Volcano Observatory, when she noticed a strange seismic signal on Mount Spurr. A large shock to the Earth -- not as abrupt as an earthquake -- had happened somewhere in Alaska. When Caplan-Auerbach saw the odd signal was even stronger on Mount Wrangell, she suspected there was a great avalanche somewhere in the restless corner of Alaska where the Panhandle of Southeast meets the rest of the state. There was.

Democrats No Biden, Del.; Boxer, Calif.; Cantwell, Wash.; Corzine, N.J.; Dayton, Minn.; Dodd, Conn.; Dorgan, N.D.; Feingold, Wis.; Kennedy, Mass.; Kerry, Mass.; Lautenberg, N.J.; Levin, Mich.; Lincoln, Ark.; Murray, Wash.; Reed, R.I.; Sarbanes, Md.; Stabenow, Mich.

Friday, March 25, 2005 - 12:00 AM | UDOT admits it was at fault in backyard artillery accident Michael Rigert DAILY HERALD The Utah Department of Transportation said it was most definitely at fault when an artillery round that easily could have killed several people landed in a Pleasant Grove family's back yard Wednesday afternoon. The round was meant for avalanche control in Provo Canyon. Tom Hudachko, a Utah Department of Transportation spokesman, said crews were conducting avalanche control with the cannon in the vicinity of Slide Canyon and Lost Creek when the 105 mm howitzer projectile was launched over...

Mt. Everest Avalanche Injures Climbers Friday, May 06, 2005 KATMANDU, Nepal — Medics in a makeshift tent hospital on Mount Everest (search) on Friday treated six climbers injured in an avalanche, while rescuers hoping to evacuate the victims in helicopters were turned back by snowfall and strong wind. No one was killed by the avalanche early Thursday, which swept through the first of four camps set up between Everest's base camp and the mountain's 29,035-foot summit. Six climbers received injuries ranging from bruises to a possible broken back, reports from the mountain said. The victims' nationalities were still unclear. They...

    Avalanche Control Round Lands in BackyardUDOT admitting today that a howitzer shell that exploded in the backyard of a Pleasant Grove home was from one of their avalanche control cannons.   (KSL News) -- A 105 howitzer round that exploded in a Pleasant Grove backyard came from an avalanche cannon in Provo Canyon. UDOT Deputy Director Carlos Braceras says they shot eight shells Wednesday afternoon in the canyon, but the last one appears to have been over packed with gunpowder. UDOT says they'll take full responsibility and compensate the homeowners for all damage caused. They're also suspending indefinitely...

 MONA, Utah - A hiker fell about 1,000 feet down a mountain side, riding an avalanche feet-first — and suffered only minor injuries. "Extremely lucky," said Juab County Sheriff Alden Orme. Mark Thomas and two companions were hiking on a ridge near Mount Nebo on Saturday when snow gave way beneath them, they told police. His friends did not fall, but Thomas slid about 1,000 feet, triggering an avalanche, Orme said. Thomas, 21, of Salt Lake City, told police that he rode the cascading snow feet-first, and came to a stop partially buried in a canyon. His friends went for...

STOWE, Vt. (AP) A lifelong skier was killed when an avalanche carried him off a mountain while he and three friends were making a film about extreme skiing. Alec Stall, 23, was being filmed doing sweeping turns down a steep chute just before the accident Monday on Mount Mansfield. His friends believe Stall may have caught a ski tip in a crust of snow and fell 30 feet from a cliff edge. Above him, a slab of snow broke loose and created a river of snow that swept Stall off the mountain. ``I saw this huge rush of snow coming...

HOW IT WORKS AVALANCHE rescue beacons have become standard equipment for many skiers and snowmobilers who go into wilderness areas or beyond the boundaries of ski resorts. The small radio transmitters, strapped to the body, can aid rescuers in locating someone buried under several feet of snow.But not everyone who enters the backcountry uses the devices. Shane Maixner, a 27-year-old snowboarder from Sandpoint, Idaho, was not wearing one when he was caught in an avalanche on Jan. 14 in an out-of-bounds area near the Canyons resort in Utah. A team of rescuers found his body two days later."With that accident...

It was about two years ago when I was talking to my friend Tony Blankley of the Washington Times and Fox News, and commented that someday George Bush’s greatness as a president would be compared to Ronald Reagan’s. Tony’s response floored me: “You know, Jack, someday it might be the other way around.” The trifecta of the last two weeks – the Second Inaugural Address, the elections in Iraq, the State of the Union – provide an undeniable demonstration of Tony’s prescience. Yet next December 10 in Oslo, Norway, there will be another undeniable demonstration – this one of undiluted...

A Slovak man trapped in his car under an avalanche freed himself by drinking 60 bottles of beer and urinating on the snow to melt it. Rescue teams found Richard Kral drunk and staggering along a mountain path four days after his Audi car was buried in the Slovak Tatra mountains. He told them that after the avalanche, he had opened his car window and tried to dig his way out. But as he dug with his hands, he realised the snow would fill his car before he managed to break through. He had 60 half-litre bottles of beer in...

Ananova: Man peed way out of avalanche A Slovak man trapped in his car under an avalanche freed himself by drinking 60 bottles of beer and urinating on the snow to melt it. Rescue teams found Richard Kral drunk and staggering along a mountain path four days after his Audi car was buried in the Slovak Tatra mountains. He told them that after the avalanche, he had opened his car window and tried to dig his way out. But as he dug with his hands, he realised the snow would fill his car before he managed to break through. He...

PARK CITY, Utah - An avalanche crashed down a slope near a ski run at the popular Canyons resort on Friday, a local television station reported. Rescue teams and dogs were searching for as many as 15 people who may have been trapped under the snow.

INNSBRUCK, Austria - Avalanches killed two skiers and seriously injured another Monday, and experts warned that recent storms have created unstable conditions ripe for more snow slides in Austria's Alps. A 41-year-old American and a 39-year-old German died in an avalanche in Lech am Arlberg in the southwestern province of Vorarlberg that also critically injured the American's wife, also 41, the Austria Press Agency reported. Officials did not immediately release the names or hometowns of the victims, who were located after a 30-minute search by 15 mountain rescue experts using a pair of specially trained dogs. They said the German...

Tenta faces another cancer hurdle 'Earthquake' John Tenta has revealed that he is facing yet another type of cancer, this time in his lungs. After disclosing that he had cancer of the bladder in May, ending his in-ring career, Tenta endured chemotherapy for months. But Monday, he told his fans on the WrestleCrap.com newsboard that things had taken a turn for the worse... remainder of article

An avalanche killed at least five mountaineers from the Czech Republic and Russia as they climbed a peak in Kyrgyzstan on Thursday, their tour operator said. A mass of thawing snow and glacier ice hit 20 Czech and Russian mountaineers as they approached the Central Asian state's highest peak, the Khan Tengri, an official from the tourist firm Aksai Tour said. Rescue work was going on. Several groups of climbers, numbering 50 altogether, were trying to climb the snow-capped peak when the avalanche struck. It is a matter of honour for many experienced climbers in the former Soviet Union to...

<p>RENO, Nevada (AP) -- The U.S. military is demanding the return of five howitzers that two Sierra Nevada ski resorts use to prevent avalanches, saying it needs the guns for the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.</p> <p>Alpine Meadows and Mammoth Mountain received the artillery pieces on loan from the Army and began using them last year to fire rounds into mountainsides and knock snow loose.</p>

BANFF, Alberta Three ice climbers were killed after being caught in an avalanche in Banff National Park, Canadian officials said. Their names and home towns were not released pending notification of next of kin but early reports indicated they were from the United States, said Parks Canada spokeswoman Shelley Humphries. The three, part of two climbing parties, were on Mount Wilson north of Lake Louise when the avalanche apparently knocked them off their climbing route Thursday.

Paris - Four people were killed in an avalanche in Poland as snowfall blanketed much of Europe on Thursday, triggering traffic and rail chaos and forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights in Britain, Germany and Denmark. Four people were found dead after being caught in an avalanche in Poland's southern Tatra mountains, the Polish news agency PAP reported, citing rescue services. The two men and two women, who set off from a mountain shelter on Wednesday to explore a cave, were swept away by an avalanche 50m wide and 400m long, and fell several hundred metres. In Britain, snow...

<p>BOISE, Idaho — An avalanche crashed down onto a mountainside cabin early Friday morning, filling the home with snow and killing a couple as they slept.</p> <p>Marsha Landolt, 55, the dean of the University of Washington Graduate School (search), and her husband, Robert Busch, 58, were killed in the avalanche, which occurred between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., the Camas County Sheriff's Office reported.</p>

man, seems my alma mater can't shake the bad news BOISE, Idaho — An avalanche that rushed down central Idaho's Soldier Mountain struck a cabin early today, killing the dean of the University of Washington's graduate school and her husband. Marsha Landolt, 55, and Robert A. Busch, 58, were killed in the avalanche, which occurred about 1:30 a.m., the Camas County Sheriff's Office reported. Five other family members survived. Two dug themselves out and went for help; the other three were rescued. Emergency workers evacuated all the cabins in the region until the avalanche danger passes, officials said. The ski...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- An avalanche swept across New Zealand's tallest mountain Wednesday, killing three climbers and injuring three others, rescuers said. The injured climbers were rushed to a nearby hospital in the city of Christchurch, emergency services told reporters. It wasn't immediately clear how seriously they were hurt. The victims were located as rescuers, some with sniffer dogs, searched areas of 12,349-foot Mount Cook following the 9 a.m. avalanche, said a spokeswoman for Garden City Rescue Helicopter. Identities of the climbers were not immediately available. The peak, on New Zealand's South Island, is 500 miles southwest of the...

Climber Ofira Zucker, 22, was constantly striving to reach new heights and take on new challenges, her mother Miri told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday. She told her parents in their last conversation that she was going to be the first Israeli woman to reach the summit of the Alpamayo peak in Peru. She came within 150 meters of what became her final goal. Zucker, an Ashkelon resident, and Guy Ben-Ze'ev, 23, of Haifa, died in an ice avalanche Monday morning in the Peruvian Andes. Four Germans, one Peruvian, one Irishman, and an Argentine were also killed. Zucker described her daughter...

Eight bodies, including those of two Israelis, have been discovered after a group of 16 climbers from around the world went missing while attempting to scale Mount Alpamayo in Peru, news sources report. The Israelis, Guy Ben-Ze'ev of Haifa and Ofira Zucker, were part of an 16-person expedition also including German, Argentinean, and Venezuelan climbers and local Peruvian guides. A representative from the Peruvian tour guide company Andean Kingdom told Channel 2 news on Tuesday that one of his guides saw the bodies and he is sure all the members of the group are dead. "One piece of ice fall...

Three Israeli mountain climbers who went missing Monday night after being caught in an avalanche on Peru's northeastern Andes Mountains were reported dead by the Australian Courier-Mail newspaper Tuesday. The three, on an 18-man expedition, were caught in the avalanche overnight Monday at 11 P.M. local time. According to local rescue services, the search for the eight was progressing slowly due to stormy weather conditions in the area. An official from the Israeli embassy in Peru told the Jerusalem Post that rescue workers had contacted several members of the expedition. According to the report, three Israeli, three German climbers as...

Avalanche Goalie Patrick Roy to Retire By JOHN MARSHALL, AP Sports Writer DENVER - Colorado's Patrick Roy (news) is retiring, ending the 18-year career of one of the greatest goaltenders in NHL history. Roy will make the announcement at a news conference on Wednesday, team spokesman Jean Martineau said. A four-time Stanley Cup champion, Roy leaves as the NHL's career leader in victories with 551 and games played with 1,029. He also is the all-time leader in playoff victories, games played and shutouts. Roy is still considered one of the best goalies in the game at age 37, but he...

Actor Martin Sheen says he's received an avalanche of hate mail and has been accosted on the street for his public stance against the war on Iraq. The star of NBC's "West Wing" program also believes network executives are concerned that his outspoken views may harm viewership of his show. In a report in today's Los Angeles Times, Sheen claims critics have demanded NBC fire him. The show's staff has been "100 percent supportive," but top network executives have "let it be known they're very uncomfortable with where I'm at" on the war, he said. Sheen also told the Times...

Seven skiers dead in B.C. avalanche (Second in a month) Canadian Press Sunday, February 02, 2003 REVELSTOKE, B.C. -- Seven teens on a high-school ski excursion in the treacherous back country of east-central B.C. died Saturday when a half-kilometre-wide avalanche roared down from a mountainside and engulfed their group. It was the second deadly slide to hit the region in as many weeks. Seven adults perished in a slide in January. The dead were six boys and one girl, all in Grade 10 at Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School, a private day school on an expansive rural campus in the foothills southwest of...