What has been learned about the avalanches that took out the section of line and the potential for similar problems in the future?
Avalanche specialist Bill Glude determined that the destructive force and mass of this set of avalanches were at the highest end of the scale used to quantify avalanches. Because of the magnitude of this set of avalanches, typical diversion structures would not have prevented this line failure. Bill Glude pointed out that a 100-year event is an average period of time between such enormous avalanches, but that such an avalanche could happen again at any time.
