On Thu, 8 Nov 2018 at 02:08, David Van Horn <
david.vanhorn@backcountryaccess.com> wrote:

> DHMO can be really beautiful when it's not trying to kill you.
>
> It can. And even when it is lurking waiting to kill you if you put a
(almost literally) foot wrong.

As I noted, I walked up that mountain (Ruapehu) long ago and have skied
(for some values of ski) on the middle and upper slopes on a number of
occasions.
We were not unaware of avalanche risk, but it was never made clear that a
very significant part of one face of  the mountain might ever decamp
spontaneously.
I've seen TV footage of events where tearooms and some chalets and lodges
have been demolished by combinations of avalanche and lahar from the
usually-stays-in-the-lake crater lake*.

But, again, the idea of an avalanche so vast that it was inescapable at
hundreds and hundreds and .... of metres away never really entered my
awareness.


         Russell

________________________________________________________________

DHMO - same source - different state. Tragic outcome.

* In 1953 the then "almost new" Queen Elizabeth and her husband arrived in
NZ on December 23rd.
The next day on Christmas eve Mt Ruapehu was volcanically and seismically
active enough to dislodge the barrier which retained 2 million cubic
metres** of water in its crater lake.
At about 10 pm a 6 metre lahar swept down the Whangaehu river and at about
10:15pm it struck the Tangiwai rail bridge - weakening it but not fully
destroying it.
At  10:21pm  a train with 9 carriages and 2 'vans' commenced to cross the
bridge. The bridge collapsed and the engine and 6 of the carriages
initially fell into the torrent - with 151 people ultimately dying.
The train driver, who died, had applied the brakes about 200 metres before
the bridge

** 0.002 cubic kilometres of water !

30+ years later I found that a friend of a year or so had been a trainee
guard in the van at the rear of the train!

https://www.sooty.nz/tangiwai.html
RANSFIELD Hemi Matiaha - Assistant Guard
He almost missed the train !!!:
https://www.facebook.com/214182435266363/posts/some-memories-of-the-tangiwa=
i/713565045328097/


1 https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/the-tangiwai-railway-disaster
2 https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/tangiwai-railway-disaster/wrong-place
3
4
5
6 https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/tangiwai-disaster/further-information

Legion:
https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=3Dtangiwai+disaster&oq=3Dtangiwai+disaste=
r&aqs=3Dchrome..69i57j0l5.6174j0j7&sourceid=3Dchrome&ie=3DUTF-8


 Even bigger than the ones in Texas :-)

>
> https://youtu.be/JwtxNYt6r5U
>
>
>
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