During and immediately after winter storms, deep accumulations of fresh snow, wind driven snow deposition, and dramatic temperature changes can make the slopes unstable and extremely hazardous.

An important early challenge to ski development in Palisades Tahoe, for one example, was to reduce the risk of destructive and potentially fatal snow slides. In the mid 1900's the mountain had 35 known areas that would often slide during or after major storms.

In the first five years Palisades Tahoe was a ski resort, powerful avalanches wiped out chairlift towers three times. During the winter of 1952, lift operator Joe Carson was killed by a slide when he decided to snowshoe down from his station at the top of the mountain. His body wasn't discovered until the spring.

Once Palisades Tahoe received the nod to host the 1960 Winter Olympic Games, a major effort to control the risk of avalanche was ordered by the Olympic Organizing Committee. Monty Atwater, a 10th Mountain Division veteran and a U.S. Forest Service technical advisor in snow safety, and Richard Stillman, an avalanche hazard forecaster, were brought in to study the mountain's avalanche-prone terrain. Their job was to protect the thousands of athletes and spectators expected at the games. Using innovative equipment that Atwater had devised during his research in Utah and Colorado and weaponry loaned by the U.S. Army, the two men joined forces to advance the art and science of avalanche control.

Cannons and Firecrackers
Four 105-millimeter recoilless rifles, which shoot large, 32-pound projectiles, were placed around the slopes of Palisades Tahoe. Additionally, three 75-millimeter rifles were added to the array of firepower. Finally, to avoid the risk of shrapnel damage to ski lifts or buildings, Atwater and Stillman also came up with five-pound "firecrackers" of the explosive, tetrytol. The firecrackers were three times more powerful than the same weight of dynamite.

A "bomber," riding the ski lift well before skiers were near the slopes, would light the fuse and throw a firecracker into the snow below, all the while praying that the chairlift didn't stop! Atwater and Stillman weren't trying to prevent avalanches; they shot or bombed the known tracks to trigger avalanches when no one was around then to get hurt. Fair weather during the 1960 Olympic Games made much of the firepower unnecessary, but Atwater and Stillman and their avalanche control crews were ready just in case.

In the years since 1960, the pioneering work in avalanche safety by these two men has probably saved the lives of countless skiers and snowboarders at ski areas around the country and throughout the world.

Mark McLaughlin is a weather historian who lives on the North Shore.