This is rather odd and could have had serious consequences. A large boulder sliding down a hillside (piste) onto a road. The area is a few kilometres north of Bruneck in Südtirol
If you look carefully at the video you can see the stone appear right at the beginning narrowly missing a lift tower before sliding all the way down the grassy piste
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
When travelling in Austria with my family, back in the day, I was always intrigued by the warning signs by the road, for "Stein schlage" (can't remember the spelling). This was the sort of thing I always expected to find on the road as we came round a bend.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
@munich_irish, couldn't have got a better result (hitting the target (road)) if he'd tried.
@under a new name, that's true, what is unusual here is a toboggan shaped boulder sliding down a lift line then across a grassy slope onto the road. Rocks falling off cliffs etc happen all the time. I find it odd the lift company had not spotted the boulder and removed it as it could have caused serious damage to a lift pylon.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
@under a new name, indeed very common. What is not common is getting a comedy video of it.
Of course could have been disastrous and awful in heavier traffic conditions.
I have seen big things on the move above Arolla. Looked up and saw large boulder moving in a mysterious way for about 100m. And we stopped whilst DHing at Vercorin and heard something massive smashing through the forest - bash crash thump crash - but Vercorin is known as a very loose area. Always have to drive around choss in the road and always have eye out for falling stuff….
and this a couple of months after I drove the road at midnight....always a dangerous road and it always feels like rolling the dice when you drive it....
heavy rain often associated with these kinds of events, when large boulders are held in unconsolidated sedimentary rock. Whole areas of the Alps are like this, due to the processes of their formation; they may have been stable for millennia but geological processes are ongoing ones.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
My local ski hill, Falls Creek, was cut off in October when a slow-moving landslide took away the side of a mountain. The road reopened only last week, with only one lane, controlled by traffic lights. It will stay that way over winter. I bet it will be a palaver during the busy traffic days, ie Friday through to Sunday.
@geoffers, an extreme example of why you don’ t set up camp in gullies!
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
@ulmerhutte, …in that particular gully you’d have to be bonkers to even be there. The signs say ‘sudden controlled release possible at any time’ - so a bad place for a picnic - and if you look carefully in the video the red warning lights are flashing frantically….
It’s a mislabelled video - it’s not a flash flood, it’s a controlled release.
FAQ
Poster: A snowHead
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