This massive avalanche is snow joke.
On March 27, a group of skiers and snowboarders at Sundance Resort, Utah, captured hypnotizing footage of an avalanche descending from the “Middle Finger” area of Mount Timpanogos.
Thomas Farley, the skier who filmed the video, recorded the enormous power cloud as it rolled down the mountain and quickly approached.
Farley’s reaction was simple but effective: “What the heck, bro?”
“That is one of the biggest avalanches I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s going to pummel us,” he said.
In only seconds, his words turned true as the powder cloud rushed over Farley and the group in a blinding white haze.
Sundance Resort said the avalanche was triggered by natural causes, and unbelievably, no one was injured.
“Today there was a natural avalanche that started on Mount Timpanogos and carried down the mountain into an area outside our ski area boundaries,” the resort wrote. “Footage shows the dust/wind cloud reaching guests who were watching but no one was hurt as deposition area never reahed our boundaries.”
The Utah Avalanche Centre reported that the debris stopped in the nearby dry lakes, though the dust cloud carried for hundreds of yards.
Powder cloud avalanches are caused by flowing avalanches that trigger turbulent clouds of airborne snow particles. Powder clouds can travel up to 300 kilometres per hour and may cause damage beyond the initial debris range.