Avalanche
An avalanche came down on a convoy of about 20 cars who were leaving Mt. Hutt, NZ ski area near Canterbury, NZ today, August 16th 2017, according to Stuff.co.nz. The avalanche hit one pick up truck – pictured above.
Mt. Hutt recently saw 47″ of new snow.
“We were just sort of driving along and boom, it just hit our car. The wind was howling so much. It was a big white out at the time . . . it hit the car and pushed us right over to the edge, and luckily we didn’t go over.” -Hennie Murray
Fierce winds are likely to blame for creating a wind slab avalanche that released on the cars.
The car hit by the avalanche was pushed close to the edge of the cliff but didn’t go over. The car was damaged but no injuries were reported.
Two shuttle buses collided due to the avalanche. Again, no injuries reported.
Around 200 people were stuck at the ski area after the slide closed the access road.
Explosives were used to remove the snow.
All 2,500 ski area guests were all safely down the mountain by 7:45pm today.
Hennie Murray and his friends narrowly missing being hit by an avalanche while driving along the Mt Hutt access road on August 1.
“It was quite surprising; It was a beautiful bluebird day, totally calm . . . and we finished the day with gale force winds.” – James McKenzie, Mt. Hutt manager
