Huge avalanche powder cloud in Val Veny, Italy

An enormous avalanche powder cloud charged into Val Veny, in Italy's Aosta valley, yesterday, close to the Zerotta chairlift at an altitude of about 1500 meters. The avalanche had released from Fauteuil des Allemands and the turbulent flow of avalanche debris also reached the Zerotta piste. Fortunately, there were no injuries.

Meteo Valle d'Aosta, which shared the video, clarified: "What you see in the video is not the avalanche itself, but the powder cloud, i.e. a cloud of light snow lifted by the air displacement triggered by the avalanche and which constitutes a small percentage of the snow mass. The bulk of the mass stops far from where the video was taken. The cloud does not represent a danger if you are, as in this case, on the opposite side from which the avalanche is coming, because when it reaches us, it arrives at a reduced speed. At the moment we are hit, we are, no more no less, inside a snowstorm with wind, which lasts a few minutes and then dissipates. We therefore invite you not to comment by calling those who filmed reckless or insulting people because they don't move away. It's useless, the blast reaches you in an instant. It's enough to simply crouch down on the ground and wait for it to pass in a few minutes. Everything else is pure speculation by those who probably only go to the mountains via social media and feel entitled to judge the behavior of mountain professionals or people who get scared, as is only right."

The avalanche danger in the Aosta Valley Alps remains high at 4 out of 5, and unfortunately this winter throughout the Alps there have been numerous victims. On Sunday, 15 February three French skiers - Hugo Neuville, Quentin Philippe and Alexis Rassat - lost their lives in an off-piste avalanche in Val Veny.