Аннотация:t is known that explosions can trigger avalanches but mechanisms of their influence remain unstudied and experimental data on explosion effects on the snow cover stability are very poor. The study deals with explosion factors such as seismic and air shock waves. Two mechanisms of snow instability caused by blasting are discussed. One of these is connected with additional load on snow layer and the other - with a snow strength decrease. Presented are the equipment for ground shaking and air shock wave pressure measurements as well as the analysis of the technological explosions measuring results from an open pit mine. Described are the construction and the characteristics of a shaking table designed to study the shaking effect on snow strength in laboratory Consideration is given to the approaches to deterministic and stochastic simulation of blasting effects on snow stability and avalanche release. The study was supported by the Russian Foundation for basic research (grant 05-05-64368-а).