Monty Atwater was the father of American avalanche science. Returning from WWII, he joined the US Forest Service and established the country's first avalanche research center at Alta, Utah. Atwater and the newly-founded Snow Rangers set about developing modern methods of avalanche control by applying military techniques used to knock avalanches onto the heads of enemy soldiers in the Alps. This book chronicles that exciting time and includes basic avalanche awareness information, a bibliography of old avalanche titles and great old photos of Little Cottonwood Canyon with no ski tracks in the backcountry!

Although Monty writes the prose pretty straight, I find the descriptions of early avalanche-control efforts to be hilarious! One example is the "satchel charge": a sack pre-loaded for blowing up bridges with as much tetrytol as the military could pack into it. This army-surplus bag was then ignited and tossed onto the slope to be tested, but sometimes it would hit and stick right next to the Snow Rangers, or worse, take off down the mountain.

This book is a confirmed classic--if Amazon.com can't find it for you, try Chessler Books.

Reviewed by: FF on 3/12/99

There's nothing like painlessly learning from the mistakes of others! Snowy Torrents is a multi-volume compendium of U.S. avalanche accident descriptions and analyses. The most current volumes cover the years from 1980-86 and from 1972-79. They are still in print.

Earlier volumes are out of print but may be occasionally found through used book dealers like Chessler Books. It's well worth the search because these earlier volumes include interesting accidents that seldom happen anymore, like trains and entire towns being wiped out! These books are the best source of historical data for research projects and statistical analysis. American avalanche incident descriptions for the years since 1995 are catalogued and available on-line.

Reviewed by: FF on 2/8/01

This is the original version of The Avalanche Handbook with its funky pictures of macho Alta snow rangers firing their 75mm recoilless rifle without ear protection, descriptions of "modern" backcountry ski and avalanche equipment made of leather, wood and bamboo and recipes for massive earth bulwarks that nobody builds anymore.

Every now and then a whole box of these pops up out of some basement somewhere. Your best bet for finding a copy is probably through your local Forest Service Snow Ranger, or maybe an on-line auction house like Amazon or e-bay.

Reviewed by: FF on 2/8/01

This is a wonderful old text! The introduction by Paul Niggli, Bader's mentor, poetically and convincingly describes snow structure as analogous to rock. This amazing opening essay also includes an overview of avalanche science to date (1939) and some very odd and quaint quotations from old Swiss history books about avalanche accidents resulting from and/or leading to conflicts between ancient rival duchies. These few pages are worth the entire price!

The rest of the book is great "sport science", with mathematical equations and graphical descriptions of mechanical snow properties like creep, deformation, settlement and layering. There are also research reports, including some wonderful old photos of metamorphism studies that explain rounding in a way words never can. Although some of the science is undoubtedly outdated, this book should be required reading for any grad student contemplating a "new" investigation into snow properties.

CRREL has an excellent library of snow and arctic research. They may still have a few copies.

Reviewed by: FF on 2/11/01

In April 1885, the first book ever to outline the hazards of mountaineering appeared. Emil Zsigmondy, a 24 year-old doctor and "guideless Viennese mountaineer", produced this comprehensive work that included detailed avalanche information, then promptly fell to his death on La Meije. The book passed to his family and later editions were produced by his brothers.

In the early 1910's, William Paulcke, a geologist and minerologist, was asked to update the book. This 500 page version stood as a standard avalanche text well into the 60's, even though the last edition appeared way back in 1933. Even though much of the information is outdated, in my opinion Paulcke is still the one who best describes wind slabs, referring to both windward and leeward packing. These early editions are few and far between and not much use unless you speak German.

In 1969, Helmut Dumler met with the family and publishers. The resulting updated, translated and condensed edition (on left) contains beautiful photos of the Alps before the glaciers receded, shots of skiers getting knocked over by small, "harmless" avalanches and such "modern" tools as avalanche cords and "avalanche magnets"--apparently an early beacon prototype.

Reviewed by: FF on 2/11/01

Colin Fraser strikes me as a kind of "snow groupie". He spent a couple seasons hanging around the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research while volunteering with the Parsenndienst, a Ski Patrol-type rescue service in Davos, Switzerland.

His book is far ranging and covers the usual information on snow and avalanche formation, mitigation and rescue, but the most effort is placed on telling great stories. Fraser excavated many interesting historical avalanche anecdotes and incidents as far back as Strabo (36 B.C.). These accounts include the identification of the pass that Hannibal crossed, triggering perhaps the most dramatic avalanche in history. He also discusses witchcraft as a supposed source of avalanches in European tradition, and the nuts and bolts operation of the Parsenndienst, among other things. You really get a sense of how integral avalanches are to the culture of European mountain communities. This is an interesting contrast to the US perspective where avalanches are still an utter unknown to most people, including many who now live in avalanche paths.

I found a copy of this one on Amazon's Z-Shops auction site.

Reviewed by: FF on 2/8/01