medio gogarty dot com. back there with the here's a look at the top stories as nato fights to strip colonel gadhafi of while well libya's on the brink of its worst fuel crisis several people on the ground complain the battle against lead in years is harming innocent civilians the mall says. israel's flow of cheap gas is drying up with egypt pushing forward saying i see our g. deal sealed under the previous regime a shake up was prompted by allegations that anyone only benefits the jewish state and mubarak's family. excessive amounts of highly toxic strong

shilling to cancer and leukemia have been detected in waters around the pans for sure many clear plans scientists also warn that levels of contamination are even higher than those recorded following the turn off of catastrophe. also the top stories here darcy that's we talk to those who will risk the might of an avalanche and search ultimately drown untie. the cooler peninsular in russia's north home to the q.b. need massive mountain range this is the cold and windy. the snow here between one and a half and four meters deep. safety specialists are probing the snow structure of a lot of the slopes.

the top layer of snow drifts on a slope is unstable and skiers could trigger an avalanche shift change from those of you who it came to skull mountain peaks please be careful. some avalanches a wet others a dry it all depends on the snows composition the speed of avalanches varies between seventy and four hundred kilometers an hour a man can do nothing in the face of tons of snow rushing down to such a velocity. and yet people do live in the mountains they study avalanches to be able to protect themselves from each year skiers and snowboarders tempt fate by taking to the mountain slopes. in this weather station in the q.b. massive is situated close to the town of one hundred fifty kilometers north of the

arctic circle it is one of the instruments of the avalanche safety service it records dozens of readings several times a day snow and ground temperatures wind direction solar activity and pursue potations all those factors affect the snow and its structure the station staff uses them as the basis for political reform casts concerning avalanches. what triggers a sudden movement of snow in the mountains resulting in a formidable natural disaster. finding the answer to that question is the job of scientists to some petersburg's hydra me to relaunch a call university one of the factors triggering an avalanche is nothing more unusual than snow evaporation little flakes turn into vapor even at very low temperatures. but with. the top layer of the snow but he escapes into the air. but in low light as it settles on large snowflakes turns into us.

as a result snow in the lowest layer turns into large brown crystals. just makes the top most last slide over these ground pellets. the only way to fight avalanches is to get them to move before they begin sliding down the road whenever a weather forecast points to snow instability avalanches or sets off to prevent the risk of a larger one occurring before the roads are blocked ski loops are closed and the area was cordoned off a modern computer system controls on the launch moved from gases fed into a bell suspended from a helicopter an operator then triggers a spark in the belt on the gas explodes the shockwave triggers an avalanche.

this method is widely used in the foothills of the caucasus close to the city of sochi russia's most popular steam resorts the situation here. is in the world are prone to avalanches and all of them are affected by our launches every single one. yes the slope is avalanche prone if it is steeper than fifteen to twenty degrees. the two thousand and fourteen winter olympics is to take place here new ski lifts are being built a modern trails are being prepared the downhill routes varying complexity some are just right for budding skiis others pose a challenge to professional sportsman. the caucasus mountains off the pine area about the same size of an average european country roots provided with all the

necessary facilities take up a small part of the slopes so far it is only possible to reach most of the mountain tops by helicopter going downhill where nobody. his set foot is the ambition of many skiers and snowboarders there is a special term for this costly form of entertainment kelly skiing. at their wish well east game is what every free rider aspires to and it just takes your breath away to ride down the slope after a helicopter. flies you to some out of the way knock in the mountains.

once we left the helicopter we have to test the snow. so what this means is well we make it picks to see the pattern of snow fall in the last few weeks. if we see that there's a danger of an avalanche happening that day then we just pack up straightaway and go home when the situation is just right though we follow this route down a mountain. or the wilds of the route the better the snow sure you have so many different routes lying ahead of you so you can choose whichever way you want to go down the mountain pending on the level of skiing your experience in college is how good you are. studying and forecasting avalanches is a complicated process with many phases any forecast supplied by the weather station

can never be certain accurate conclusions are made only after testing the snow cover a particular point. there one layer of the snow is compact the other is loose you can see it is fluffy. but you see if i touch this with my finger it is almost uniform i'm going to see how thick it is. twenty five centimeters of snow drift. snow drift is the layer that moves with the wind from one location to another this type of snow has the weakest bond with the lower layers. but when somebody comes to the slope they see such snow but they don't know what it is like underneath it may be packed in america case it is not dangerous or what if it is unstable down there you just step on the snow and it slides away from you if the snows temperature structure and density are all measured by the specialists to see how the layers upon together they handle the readings right on the spot. but.

the test demonstrates that the top layer of the snow drift on the slope is unstable so it may start sliding when skiis or snowboards ride over it which could then trigger an avalanche so now we're going to designate the area as hazardous and closed to the public. attention of those of you who are keen to scale mountain peaks please be careful according to the able and safety center a heightened alert has been declared for the next two days because of an avalanche hazard. mostly video or is a ski resort within the arctic circle originally it was meant as a place where the people of the town of killed lost could spend their vacations as a tourist from across the country come to visit. we were going there for ten days but trouble struck on the second. memories of what happened then are so vivid in young's mind but it seems as though it were just

yesterday but in fact several years have passed since the accident in many ways that incident changed his life. or if you look at the slope from below you will see a clearing between the trees as theirs and it is there because frequent avalanches sweep away trees standing in their path i did not know at the time that the slope was avalanche prone. none of the people who came to that slope could even imagine the outcome. free riders make a special point of looking for wild slopes to ride over virgin snow. for the past ten years you have guinea cliff

a cough has taken groups of free riders in the city of your coast to the my my past on the southern shore of lake baikal. lake lanier could st john is the world's largest body of fresh water locals call it a c. it is fifteen hundred meters deep in places that. will cover part of the distance over the ice of late by car then it will be several kilometers of a winding path in the mountains another ten kilometers along a stream gorge. you could say the place is in the. wilderness there isn't any electricity or a decent road there it can only be reached either by snowmobile foreign foot. on the way to its destination the group registers with the local rescue service. an official of the service and rescue party takes note of its roots the number of

people involved and approximate date of the group's return if the group fails to turn up on time rescue teams will undergo a search and rescue operation like all other groups of this kind this one is briefed before it continues its journey. i wish to formally warn you of possible avalanches in the mountains you should be on alert especially after lunch time when warmer weather normally causes snow falls also a storm alert has been declared for tomorrow north westerly winds of up to twenty meters a second. a member of the rescue services joins the club because the group they go as far as the foothills where the road ends they then cover ten kilometers across low hills with an all terrain vehicle but before taking a ride from the slope the group needs to hike uphill on force as no motor vehicles can get up such an incline.

heading toward slopes hidden from the sun because that's where pax knows likely to be. you may begin moving any time now that's why i will go skiing on the shady side close to the forest the snow still holds on. despite the long pole a group of free riders managed to scale the mountain and go downhill on the first day before some so.

well. bringing you the latest in science and technology from around russia. we've dumped a few jerks covered. more than

a month. in one of the most extreme environments on the planet this is and charged up and people have to be aware that they're far away from civilization sean paul is discovers fun to make sounds article is so special and instructive for many wildlife in antarctica is opposing you and the friends of. expedition to the bottom of the earth on our city. to a substantial degree and one problem or another socialism has spread the shadow of human regimentation over most of the nations of europe and the shadow is encroaching upon the frontier. to leave early twenty first

century military bases a network of military bases all around the former sleepy empire that the united states is trying to build that's astonishing most americans have no idea there are more than a quarter of a million more than two hundred fifty thousand u.s. troops stationed on these bases all around them. we don't have a problem bases of america we don't have any british base we don't have any korean base we don't have any french bases or you know we just all american bases in in the last hour basis of iraq or the noises i would often doesn't bother us at all because they're all bases but for other people it's almost like a cancer here for them speed. since the into world war two the spaces i've been. working here to provide a safe and secure environment for everybody. the

questions you think else you get everything you needed. the peninsula within the arctic circle is russia's northernmost point a group of sportsman skiing in the mountains has been hit by an avalanche rescue is of the care of regional rescue services receive a request for assistance they do not know how long it will take them to reach the scene a lot depends on distance the terrain and weather conditions they have vivid memories of what happened to a group of skiers from st petersburg a few years ago. which is one of those who know all too well what the full force of an avalanche feels like. to go but as i approach the edge to get ready for the descent. i mean yes i was knocked over with such force from my close and happened

in the shuttle and everything became unfastened. i sensed i was tumbling down at top speed with an enormous mass of something pressing on me it was like being under a stamping press record but i cannot say how long all that lasted but i was told the avalanche was on the move for only four or five seconds but to me it seemed like an eternity. enormous blocks of snow and ice reduce everything in their path to smithereens they sweep away trees and destroy buildings at one point i felt as if i was literally bending over backwards with the stress on my spine was so great i thought my back would be broken. then my head was out of the snow. i think my lungs had filled up with snow and i strained to cough it up i remember feeling afterwards that my chest had become lighter six. yann was dug up by

a companion who had not been caught up in the avalanche rescuers found three more men buried under the snow they were dead quite often it takes several days to find victims buried in an avalanche for me to long proves they used to dig into the snow this is the only method to find a free rider unless he has a radio beacon on it. when appropriate something soft it's clear there is a victim a sound produced by the probe in that case is also helpful so we begin digging right there and then felix eva sure is a doctor with the local rescue team he always joins the team on duty when they go to help avalanche victims is a kilogram kit contains all the necessary equipment for on site reanimation though in practice and rarely needs it we're going to statistics if victims are stuck in an avalanche for fifteen minutes their chances of survival of fifty percent any

longer and there is a sharp drop in the chances of survival. we haven't recovered a buried survivor from an avalanche around here in the past ten years. in terms preparations for the winter olympics of cut the number of burgeon slopes in the vicinity of sochi available for free riding results rescuers will be hard put to recall the last time they dealt with avalanche related incidents. and ten eyes to counter the snow on the mountain slopes they are the visible part of what is otherwise covered with snow these are ultimately weather stations days or is continuously supplied to an online computer of the resorts avalanche control. station measures snow depth and temperature humidity wind characteristics solar radiation. and anise ferry question was this and more allowance to

forecast avalanches. with you know. these old looking pipes on mountain tops are part of the resorts avalanche safety system . failing to so-called shelters booths containing gas cylinders with oxygen propane . no k. everything's in order here for shelter oxygen and frank pain is fed to an empty avalanche come from special pipes and operators sets off the gas mixture by pressing a button. in the old days all resorts use guns or mortars to fight avalanches they would be brought to a slope and fired at a designated target nowadays they're gradually falling into disuse. we have resolved the problem by taking on purely ecological systems used elsewhere in the world. they don't damage the ground either in summer or in winter.

they simply remove the snow whenever we want to get rid of it or get out on. a computer at the avalanche control service receive signals from automatic weather stations twenty four hours a day irrespective of weather conditions the figures are then analyzed. if necessary the operator uses the same computer to set a small avalanche in motion which cannot do any harm. which as we say any slip can pose an avalanche hazard. avalanches make even in the most unlikely places. hellish skiing enthusiastic every possible precaution they can ever be fully guaranteed against being caught in an avalanche. of that is that when you get on the fresh snow it's already under stress but you

make things worse by adding your weight to it on top of that is you cutting the snow with your skis and all my combined myself and i will. normally the guide will do the job himself of testing the snow and if he senses the possibility of an avalanche he might deliberately force the snow to get moving. if the it's a if you cut into the snow in front of me that doesn't mean it won't snap behind he's trudel first break up front little crack behind you to you no matter whether you've done the cutting or somebody else has done it for you if you have a good. scientists and some pages perk of research the peculiarities of the mountains ice and snow there is also surprising as it turns out an ice rupture generates a radio wave the can be located. by me and a most interesting thing about it is that radio frequency emissions take place shortly before i was sharing. this means it's possible to forecast as well as

record our shearing actually but i mean this can be done if only for a short time before just an hour or so. experiments with snow by the scientists have also demonstrated that during its wide an avalanche to them it's radio waves. here tonight it's the only radio missions are generated by a small snow crystals rubbing against one another there is a villain's pointing to the existence of radio frequency radiation even in a visible range people see light coming from no. aton avalanches. for the time being it is possible to focused of a lunch is only a few seconds ahead special radio receivers a use for the purpose. mounted on my on the southern side of lake baikal is known for its fluffy snow it is light soft and powdery freeriding fans

need to demonstrate highly professional skills in such conditions otherwise one uncertain move may land you waist deep in the snow alone un tame slopes of fruit for the numerous risks for the novice. but. there you can see a large area covered with snow there are lots of trees there five years ago to go to a big avalanche in december swept away everything in its way that place is a constant reminder of the threat posed by avalanches with.

free riders from neighboring towns have built cabins in the foothills of mount my my they spend weekends here there is nothing inside apart from stoves tables and makeshift beds the cabins are almost buried in snow which makes them look like big snow drifts with when a connection it's before they get to the mountain top free riders spend a good deal of time scrambling along with skis oh boats on their backs or. yes the first you may not like it here if all you enjoy is sliding downhill you're unlikely to enjoy going uphill on foot completely nor are you likely to be very keen to stoke the coals in the stove even during the night here you can't leave without wearing snowshoes to cope with it you really need to love it all this landscape this forest this weather and this permanent snowfall.

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