[pct-l] Avalanche!!!

[james8313 @dslextreme.com]

They need some Hickory Trees in LeConte Canyon to stop the Avalances......

This remined me of a air crash were I was sent to verify the elevation of a
ridge.  It seems that a
Army 10 passenger twin engine Beechcraft ran into the top of a ridge outside
of Atlanta in 1973
during a Ice Storm.  When you stood at the crash site you could see the
cut that was made thru the
tops of the trees as it descended in a 10 degree bank to align up with the
airport.

The plane hit a 12" hickory tree 15' from its base at 200 knots.  The tree
folded over the left wing between
the engine and body of the plane stoping the plane in 15' as it did not pull
the roots out of the ground.
The Pilot and the 2 passengers behind him were killed - copilot and the 2
passengers behind him survived.  I saw the
instrument panel as it had been removed from the wreck -- it was bent in 5
different directions.

The closest benchmark elevation was 5 miles away and it took 2 days in the
snow, rain and sleet to
determined that the ridge had not jumped up but was at the elevation as
indicated on the maps -- It was
indicated that the altimeter was off due to the pressure chage due to the
storm..

If this happen now a mid price range GPS could be used to verified the
Elevation.

YosemiteJames


Date: Tue, 05 Oct 2010 18:55:18 -0600
From: Jeffrey Olson <jolson at olc.edu>
 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.