Guest
Want to support this channel and help us preserve old films? Visit Visit our website This educational film is an episode of the TV program titled “Discovery '70”, released in 1970. This award-winning program aired on ABC for multiple seasons from 1962 until 1971. This episode, titled “School for Snowfighters”, is hosted by Virginia Gibson and Bill Owen. It shows the work of the snow rangers in the mountains of the Town of Alta in Utah in forecasting and preventing avalanches. The School of Snowfighters trains students in the techniques of security and rescuing, to safe keep the area for skiers. An avalanche in the state of Utah (00:09). Snow rangers use explosives to start controlled avalanches (00:22). “School for Snowfighters” title banner (00:36). The “Discovery ‘70” intro-segment (00:41). “Discovery ‘70” title banner (00:55). Hosts Bill Owen and Virginia Gibson introduce the episode on skis on the snowy mountain sides in the Town of Alta in Utah (01:04). Scenes from visitors using lifts and skiing at a ski resort in Alta (01:43). A sign towards the “Alta Avalanche Study Center” and the “Alta Guard Station” (02:24). Resort visitors ski and play in the snow (02:26). Skiers are going down the different alpine runs (02:49). Rangers take snow samples for quality-testing for the purpose of water-yielding (03:26). 100-year-old black-and-white historical pictures of the town of Alta (03:40). The ‘Bel Vega Silver Corporation tower of a mine in Alta (04:33). Hosts Owen and Gibson ride the ski-lift (04:45). The headquarters of the Alta Avalanche Study Center (05:11). The students at the School for Snowfighters (05:19). The teacher starts a lesson on avalanches held out in the snowy landscapes (05:50). He uses a ram penetrometer to calculate to the resistance of the snow to forecast avalanches (07:01). An avalanche (07:44). Scenes of the snowy mountainsides in the landscapes of Alta (08:33). Footage of one of two types of avalanches; a loose avalanche, which is usually small, dry, and harmless (08:54). Footage of the second type; a slab avalanche, which released hard slabs of snow and presents great dangers (09:07). A disgust anemometer used by rangers in ensuring safety in the area (09:45). A creep meter (09:56). Interval stakes (10:15). A ranger working in a snow pit (10:25). Hosts Owen and Gibson talk about the rangers’ work in forecasting avalanches (10:43). Test-skiers ski on mountainsides to analyze the snow (12:05). Experiences rangers ski incorrectly to demonstrate the corrects ways to test the snow for the students (12:38). Rangers utilize explosives to test the largest slopes (13:23). A detonator triggers an artificially triggered slab-avalanche to avoid the potential dangers of a natural trigger later (13:43). The same process is done using artillery fire (14:15), and a compressed air cannon (14:37). A crowd watch an artificially triggered avalanche (15:32). Hosts Owen and Gibson introduce mock rescue exercises in the School of Snowfighters (15:49). Students wear their avalanche rescue caches (16:23). Hosts Owen and Gibson continue their outline of the following exercise (16:34). A helicopter flies over the mountain sides (16:55). The students begin the mock-rescue exercise (17:17). Owen and Gibson summarize the episode as the students return (19:45). Visitors of the Alta resort are skiing down alpine runs (20:08). Owen and Gibson continue concluding the episode (20:23). They suggest books to the viewer on further information about snow and mountain regions (21:12). This episode was a Jules Power production in association with ABC News and Public Affairs, sponsored by United Airlines, and produced in cooperation with the National Education Association, the American Library Association, and The Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce. The production crew consists of Michael Burton as writer, Howard Milkin as director, Peter Powell as cameraman, Ken Werner at Edward Deitch, Inc. as film editor, John Feneck at Music for Film, Inc. as music supervisor, Monroe E. Carol as production administrator, Jules Power as executive producer, Arthur Littman as associate producer, and Lily Partridge as production assistant. We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: “01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.“ This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit
