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Avalanche crew brings
French innovation to Idaho
to improve winter operations
in Canyon Creek

Snow is already starting to fly in the mountains of Southwest Idaho, and this year ITD’s avalanche crew from Lowman has a couple of new tools to do their jobs — remote avalanche control systems called O’Bellx.

The system, built by French company TAS, consists of a removable capsule filled with oxygen and hydrogen tanks. The two gases can be remotely mixed and ignited to create a concussive blast. The avalanche crew uses the blasts to test the snowpack along a 12-mile stretch of Idaho Highway 21 along Canyon Creek. The blasts can trigger avalanches to remove unstable snow or confirm the pack is settled and safer to drive near.

The avalanche crew has experimented with several ways of delivering explosives before: shooting them out of a cannon, dubbed the “Avalauncher,” skiing up the mountain and placing charges by hand, or flying up in a helicopter to drop charges from above.

The team installed two O’Bellx devices on hard-to-reach and historically troublesome slopes: Sneaky and Six Shooter.

“The Obellxes will give us a great forecasting and mitigation tool,” said Avalanche Crew Supervisor Bill Nicholson. “This will improve the safety of the traveling public and maintenance workers during avalanche cleanups."

Installing the O’Bellxes on remote mountainsides was no small task. First, they had to be shipped from the company’s manufacturing plant in France. Stateside, a team from TAS and D3 Avalanche Crew members prepped the O’Bellx site, drilling 10-foot foundations and forming concrete platforms. Then, a helicopter hauled the system up, piece by piece, which was bolted into place.

“The contractor did an amazing job,” said Nicholson. “Their crew camped on a ledge next to the installation for four nights while the work was being done.”

The cost of the project was $595,000. With these new systems, Nicholson’s crew has another tool to reduce closure times in the canyon and keep people moving safely in the mountains.