At our company headquarters in Reichenbach we have newly installed an avalanche tower. This will be used to demonstrate to customers how the Wyssen avalanche tower works up to the point of blasting.

It is known from practical experience and from the theory of how avalanches arise from relatively dry new snow, that the effect of an explosion above the snow cover leads to the best results with respect to residual risk of unpredictable avalanches. The explosive devices used should give a medium to high detonation speed and produce a large volume of gas with a high work factor.
Test with numerous experiments show that explosives with the above-mentioned properties and charging positions above the snow cover give the highest potential effective radii.

In order to test and to safeguard the avalanche fracture zone, the whole of the potential fracture area must be subjected to an additional stress (e.g. by an explosion). This is because in the case of a snow cover with an average natural stability, the weak points where an additional stress would lead to the triggering of an initial fracture, then causing the shear fracture to spread, are not known in advance.
Artificial triggering of avalanches with explosives has essentially the following objectives:

• Discharge of large-scale potential avalanche fracture zones
• Prevention of very large avalanches, which could cause catastrophic damage in the runout zone, by pre-emptive triggering.
• Keeping potential avalanche starting zones for spring and wet-snow avalanches free during cold-weather periods or after larger accumulations of snow.
• Test of a snow cover as an effective instrument for assessing avalanche danger.

The Wyssen avalanche tower is designed to artificially trigger avalanches with remote-controlled blasting. This is to safeguard avalanche-endangered installations, ski slopes, buildings, roads etc. where uncontrolled avalanches could lead to injury or damage to persons or property.

To trigger an avalanche, a command is given by radio signal from the command centre to the control system of the magazine-box to initiate blasting.
The magazine-box contains 12 prepared explosive charges, which can be individually dropped by remote control. When the explosive charge is dropped, two igniters are activated and the explosion is set off after a time delay.
The charge remains hanging from a cord at a pre-set height above the snow surface, which is completely dropped following blasting. To reload the explosive charges the complete magazine-box is lifted from the tower by a helicopter and brought to a station building.

After conclusion of the evaluation of the Interalpin Trade Fair 2011, we could draw a very positive balance. We could welcome a lot of very interested visitors at our booth, whom we could advise about our proven avalanche towers. We could also inform several interested parties about new products on the market, such as e.g. the biodegradable charge containers.

If you are also interested in our work, you can find out about on the Internet under www.wyssen.com or contact us using the details below.

We would be very pleased to get in contact with you.

wyssen avalanche control AG
Feld 1
3713 Reichenbach i.K.
Tel. 033 676 76 76
info(at)wyssen.com