The Utah Department of Transportation on Tuesday showed off some of the staff and equipment it uses to trigger hundreds of avalanches — about 330 a year in Little Cottonwood Canyon alone — to minimize threats to motorists and property.
About two-thirds of the explosive detonations UDOT uses for avalanche control in the canyon are shells fired from the agency’s howitzer. But UDOT has been moving away from use of the howitzer to an increasing reliance on remote control systems that consist of prepositioned equipment activated by a remote operator. There are two dozen of these systems in Little Cottonwood Canyon, allowing for a more customized, fine-tuned approach to avalanche control.