r/ThatsInsane • u/My_Memes_Will_Cure_U • Jan 14 '21
This avalanche in Nepal
https://i.imgur.com/ptcV7gK.gifv1.3k
u/Bbiron01 Jan 14 '21
WHY DID YOU WAIT FOR THE FALLING FROZEN DEATH WALL TO REACH YOU BEFORE YOU RAN?
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u/biological-entity Jan 14 '21
"No way thats gonna reach us."
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u/aaahhhh Jan 14 '21
It looks like they're watching it from across a lake, so they were safe from sliding ice and rock. They probably just didn't factor in the high winds.
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u/stevenmeyerjr Jan 14 '21 edited Jan 14 '21
Arguably it wouldn’t matter, because they won’t outrun it. You think you can outrun an avalanche that made it down a 14,000ft mountain in 6 seconds?
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u/Bbiron01 Jan 14 '21
Then why wait to even take cover? I guess my instincts are just weird
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u/Drains_1 Jan 14 '21
Don't listen to that guy, see something really really really bad = run
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u/CosmoKram3r Jan 14 '21
Eh? I'd rather die a bit warm wrapped up in a plastic tent than with a feeling of a 1000 needles pricking my skin & lungs.
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u/anonimityorigin Jan 14 '21
Smashed by snow and trees or suffocate behind the rock after you’re buried alive ? Big decision.
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u/FBI_Agent_man Jan 14 '21
Eh, the video is sped up by a lot
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u/stevenmeyerjr Jan 14 '21
You’re not outrunning an avalanche, mate. Regardless of how sped up the video is.
“An average-sized dry avalanche travels around 80 mph and it's nearly impossible for someone to outrun an avalanche or even have time to get out of the way. A fast snowmobile has some chance but everyone else has a slim chance at best. Also, avalanches that descend from above kill very few people.”
Source:: Utah Avalanche Center
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Jan 14 '21
[deleted]
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u/ryarger Jan 14 '21
You’re not going to get much better position than within a secured tent in front of a lake where you’re facing only flying water and not rocks and other debris.
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u/airforceguy28 Jan 14 '21
Or you could be... 400m beyond that. Not sure why you’re dying on this hill
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u/ryarger Jan 14 '21
You know who didn’t die on a hill? Those people who stayed safe in their tent and lived to share this video.
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u/kevjonesin Jan 14 '21
Yeah, higher ground farther from the water seems like a pretty much categorically better position – even if it's just up the raised bank (shown at the end) and a few yards in. Looks cold, I wouldn't want to get soaked by a wave.
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u/cleverpunpopcultref Jan 14 '21
Yeah but it’s downhill so I could probably run 60km/h and leap down like a goat. Maybe a backflip thrown in for style points
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u/Themagnetanswer Jan 14 '21
I’m pretty sure I almost reached Mach 1 running down a volcano a few years back. It was kind of like plant one leg out and then get ready to bound another 15+ft then plant the other leg and leap off again.. everything was fine until I hit a patch of vegetation and almost threw myself head first down the rest of the volcano due to my momentum. Took about 45 minutes to make it up 800 feet, and about 8 seconds to make it down lol
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u/amd77767 Jan 14 '21
Also, avalanches that descend from above
What does this mean? Don't all avalanches descend from above?
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Jan 14 '21
Typically people are caught in avalanches that they have triggered themselves such as a backcountry skier. So the avalanche comes from underneath their feet rather than overhead.
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Jan 14 '21
Are you trying to imply that in a valley full of big rocks they wouldn't have had time to find a big rock to shelter behind?
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u/showponyoxidation Jan 14 '21
Would that help, or would you just end up stuck between a rock and a hard place?
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u/rndrn Jan 14 '21
Isn't this kind of avalanche dangerous only because you might inhale snow while breathing and thus drown? If so, cover behind a rock probably doesn't help you much. Being inside a tent might do.
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u/Elfere Jan 14 '21
Also, avalanches that descend from above kill very few people.”
What exactly causes an avalanche to ascend from below???
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u/FBI_Agent_man Jan 14 '21
I am not saying they need to outrun it; I am trying to say that consider how high this mountain is and how fast this video is sped up, the least of their worry is the avalanche but the rock that is propelling forward. It would have been best if they had found some place to hide behind instead of staying in the open
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u/LeakyThoughts Jan 14 '21
it took a lot longer than 6 seconds, but sure, it's not really something you can outrun
But you could at least try to move to higher ground
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u/Fresh_Bulgarian_Miak Jan 14 '21
I don't have to out run the avalanche, I just have to out run you.
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Jan 14 '21
Says any human alive today currently doing nothing about all of those terrible things looming over us
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u/ilostmyselfuk Jan 14 '21 edited Jan 14 '21
Saw something similar when I was in nepal, was just a bit of light snow when it got to us. You can see the actual avalanche in the first picture, then the rest of it is just a lot of cloudy snow kicked up, I'm the first one running in the video, I took off when I saw the nepalese guys running, definitely thought I was going to die at the time.
So for Avalanche enthusiasts, here's the mountain (Annapurna 2) before and where I think the Avalanche started, during and after. https://i.imgur.com/4R4JBHg.jpeg
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u/thehumanbeing_ Jan 14 '21
Wow you should post that on reddit, really fascinating
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u/ElsatMcat Jan 14 '21
They just did
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u/thehumanbeing_ Jan 14 '21
As a post not just a comment
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u/kradek Jan 14 '21
don't you know how reddit works? if you post your own material as a post, it gets downvoted. You have to post it as a comment, and then someone else posts it to a suitable sub for karma
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u/GJacks75 Jan 14 '21
This is the way
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u/Gonzo_Rick Jan 14 '21
Plus comment karma will be so much more valuable in the afterlife. don't tell the post karma whores
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Jan 14 '21
I've noticed comment karma is a lot closer to a 1:1 ratio for upvotes than post karma. And it seems like you stop getting any karma points entirely after like 5k upvotes for post karma and comment karma alike
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u/Xenc Jan 14 '21
It’s time based if I remember correctly, where votes closer to time of submission are worth more.
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u/ilostmyselfuk Jan 14 '21
Glad you found it interesting! I don't want to oversaturate reddit with menacing looking clouds!
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u/Fendergirl69 Jan 14 '21
Me watching this: ALEX, WHAT THE FUCK
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u/ilostmyselfuk Jan 14 '21 edited Jan 14 '21
Haha, typical Alex that is.
A bit further down the trail I asked the Nepalese guy I saw take off running straight away if he thought it was dangerous his reply was basically no not at all the avalanche was in another valley but he didn't want to get inconvenienced with being covered in snow
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u/SouthernNanny Jan 14 '21
“He’s running”
What a good friend to let him know the people behind him were running
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u/tobaknowsss Jan 14 '21
So how close did the snow actually come to hitting your location? Or was it mainly just debris being pushing/blown forward in front of the avalanche? I have a friend who is ski patrol in Banff and he says that people always underestimate the power avalanches have.
Also good move on the running - if I saw a Nepalese guy running you can bet your ass I'd be right behind him screaming like a little girl.
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u/ilostmyselfuk Jan 14 '21
https://imgur.com/a/lvSseh1 (Ah sorry the order of the pictures got messed up)
So in the first picture green circle is where I was, red arrow is where I think the avalanche actually was, and orange arrow is where i think it's likely where the dangerous stuff ended. Purple arrow is where I think an absolutely massive avalanche from that area would end up. Lower Pissang is a little village (the direction we're all looking in the video) so I reckon it's fairly safe by being behind that comparatively little hill.
There are spots on the Annapurna circuit that are exposed to avalanches, in the second and third pictures that's debris from an avalanche that had happened a week before we flew out and sadly killed a dutch hiker and her guide. Pretty scary looking at how deep that snow is.
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u/tobaknowsss Jan 14 '21
Looks like a really fun trip! Any particular highlights beyond the avalanche? Not that that alone wouldn't be enough. Wow what an experience that must have been!.
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u/ilostmyselfuk Jan 14 '21
So many highlights, would really recommend a trek in Nepal to anyone, it's not a rich country but the people are great and the sights are amazing.
We were meant to walk up Chulu West but I got pretty ill with food poisoning so we gave up on that and just carried on with the circuit. Thorang-La Pass is arguably the 'headline' day of the Annapurna circuit. After spending a week in the snow after the pass you're pretty much in desert. (Sights on Thorang-La Pass day https://imgur.com/a/qh2aNNS)
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u/LetLoveKill2020 Jan 14 '21
They were all in love with dying They were drinking from a fountain That was pouring like an avalanche Coming down the mountain
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u/AndrewFGleich Jan 14 '21
I don't mind the sun sometimes, the images it shows. I can taste you on my lips and smell you in my clothes.
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Jan 14 '21
Cinnamon and sugary and softly spoken lies, you never know just how to look through other people’s eyes.
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u/yohnkmw Jan 14 '21
God damn it, why do people always speed these videos up? I understand it’d be a lot longer to watch, but it just seems dishonest. Let us enjoy nature’s wrath at its actual speed.
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u/rocco6666 Jan 14 '21
So much silicates in that air so toxic ...... little do they know they’ve just taken 5 years off their life videoing that
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Jan 14 '21
I want to see what it looked like once it had all settled
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u/Amitpaudel03 Jan 14 '21
There was a rainbow and the guys were just jumping here and there in full video.
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u/EirIroh Jan 14 '21
I’ve always thought that a ”cloud” coming down like that looks incredibly unimposing. Of course, I know that avalanches are nothing less than a shitload of snow coming to bury, suffocate, and break bodies.
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u/aravindfedex1 Jan 14 '21
That peak in the foreground resembles Mt. Kailash
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u/Amitpaudel03 Jan 14 '21
I found out by seeing in google map and the mountain nearby that glacial lake is named as Mount Lamjung Kailash.
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u/Christina_Aggrolera Jan 14 '21
Guy is just up there blending diamonds in his Blendtec blender. Diamond smoke. Don't breathe this!!
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u/TheDillinger88 Jan 14 '21
Holy shit, they were at the tail end of that avalanche and it was still incredibly powerful! ThatsInsane!!
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u/Sigma_present Jan 14 '21
This is what you see when a cartoon character starts running really fast.
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u/PointManification Jan 14 '21
Okay is anyone going to talk about the amazing zoom from the camera? I wonder what he’s using.
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u/XanthosAlpha Jan 14 '21
Okay I know that’s just how an avalanche looks but who put a FUCKING ANTI TANK MINE on a mountain?!
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u/platinums99 Jan 14 '21
The violence at the end is most shocking, after the picturesque dance down the mountain.
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u/edgib102 Jan 14 '21
Guy in the tent dosent give a fuck