Big Avalanches of March 2019: Release, Motion, and Destructive Effects

Art Mears digs deep into the historic avalanche cycle that hit the Colorado Mountains in March of 2019. Please donate or make an online purchase today if you enjoyed this content!

From the 18th Annual Colorado Snow and Backcountry Workshop in Breckenridge, CO. Presented by The North Face. Made possible by our sponsors and donations from people like you.

About Art Mears

Art received his engineering and geology degrees in 1969 and 1972 from the University of Colorado. He has worked with snow-avalanche analysis and mitigation on a worldwide basis ever since. In many projects he estimated and computed the extreme avalanche events (the “design” case) by indirect methods involving history, vegetation indicators, terrain analysis and physical/statistical models. Fortunately (depending on your perspective), The March, 2019 cycle in Colorado provided many excellent examples about what could happen when terrain, storm and snowpack conditions combine in just the “right way.” His CSAW talk provides his observations and speculations about the March event.