[pct-l] Avalanche!!!

[Jeffrey Olson]

  I've hiked through LeConte Canyon a couple times and my memory has me 
say that there are few trees over 15' - avalanches are normal in that 
part of the trail.  One of the spectacles that would have me stop and 
imagine being in the h eart of winter was 8" trees broken off at 10' off 
the ground.

And how about the avalanche slopes in the North CAscades!  I remember 
countless swathes on valley sides.  I'd imagine the avalanche blasting 
down the mountainside and rising up to the trail, which it actually did 
in a couple places.

I'd really like some photographs of avalanche chutes - any webpages with 
them on it?

Thanks...

Jeff Olson
Martin, SD

On 10/5/2010 6:33 PM, ned at mountaineducation.org wrote:
> Seems to me that the LeConte Canyon Ranger, Rick Sanger, told us this past
> June when we were in there filming that there had been a group studying
> frogs in the unnamed, crescent-shaped lake at Starr's Camp just above Big
> Pete Meadow and below Black Giant prior to this summer. Unfortunately, this
> winter a large avalanche swept down from Black Giant and gouged-out the lake
> scattering ice from the frozen lake's surface and all their nets and
> measuring devices all across the nearby meadow and bushes.
>
> For the early hikers that went through that area, that is what all that ice
> in the meadow was all about. Did you notice all the fine, grey silt on top
> of the ice? That was from the bottom of the lake! You probably noticed the
> broken branches strewn about the open meadow that came from trees 150 feet
> away around the lake at tree line. Pretty amazing aftermath!
>
>