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Mushy mountainside: Avalanche across Vei 300 near Huset closes road yet again to all traffic

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An avalanche that sent snow across a stretch of Vei 300 just before midnight Sunday has resulted in the closure of the road to all traffic between Huset and the intersection near the old museum, according to The Governor of Svalbard.

The avalanche reported at 11:47 p.m. occurred about 100 meters north of Huset, according to a statement from the governor. Barriers have been placed across both end of the road, which also applies to an adjacent groomed path that is part of a popular trail for skiers this time of year.

Vei 300 has been closed frequently due to avalanches and landslides, or the threat or them, and at one point was shut to all vehicle traffic for a prolonged period until it was lifted last year.

The governor’s office is scheduled to meet with avalanche experts from Skred AS to asses conditions on the road and the mountain above. Sunday night’s snowslide, as well as some reported recently in Nybyen in the vicinity of Mine 2B, are being attributed to warming temperatures that at times have been above freezing as well as occasional strong winds.

The weather forecast through Friday calls for temperatures at or above zero degrees Celsius, occasional rain/snow, and moderate to strong breezes. The avalanche forecast from the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate is for Level Two (moderate) conditions, with an advisory to “be careful in areas with windslabs. A persistent weak layer of facets may be triggered, especially by heavier loading such as a snow-mobile or where the snow cover is thin.”

About Post Author

Mark Sabbatini

I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation. Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads. But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.
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