(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Steven Clark, Avalanche Forecaster for the Utah Department of Transportation, talks about the Avalauncher, which uses compressed gas to fire a projectile that explodes and triggers avalanches. Tuesday, March 5, 2019.
The Utah Department of Transportation on Tuesday showed off some of the staff and equipment it uses to trigger hundreds of avalanches — about 330 a year in Little Cottonwood Canyon alone — to minimize threats to motorists and property.
About two-thirds of the explosive detonations UDOT uses for avalanche control in the canyon are shells fired from the agency’s howitzer. But UDOT has been moving away from use of the howitzer to an increasing reliance on remote control systems that consist of prepositioned equipment activated by a remote operator. There are two dozen of these systems in Little Cottonwood Canyon, allowing for a more customized, fine-tuned approach to avalanche control.
Outside of Little Cottonwood, UDOT often uses the so-called Avalauncher.
These cannons use compressed gas to fire a projectile that explodes and triggers avalanches. UDOT owns three of these devices, which have been a staple of avalanche control worldwide for more than 50 years.