Ok ok, you all know about my skiing obsession. I've been reading a lot lately about snow stability and avalache danger. I found this video of an absolutely HUGE avalache. Not sure where this took place exactly, but the file name is Ruapehu, NZ. The slide goes from a slab release, to many slabs, to an almost liquid flow, where the snow takes on fluid properties and flows like a river. In the beginning of the video, you can see the charge or shell impact the mountain face and start the slide. Cool!

Ski pilots...you guys mostly operate in the flats, but a while back I saw a video posted here of a guy doing touch and goes at a resort on a ~25 degree slope. How much thought do you give to snow stability?

http://patrol.mammothmountain.com/movies/Ruapehu030906.mpg

The video file is huge too...92MB. Takes about 10 minutes with DSL.