[BULK] - Re: [pct-l] scariest sound

[msaenz at mve-architects.com (Mike Saenz)]

Scariest Sound:

10k, tree line in the Sneffels Wilderness, Lower Blue Lake, San Juan
Range, Colorado.

It was mid-August. We just returned from Summiting Mt Sneffels (14.4k).
The day was clear and blue...even throughout the afternoon.
We were just finishing up dinner when my two hiking buddies, both
wearing those Suunto altimeter watches, both tapping on their watches
and saying: "That's funny...I've never seen the barometer fall so
fast..." Just then tendrils of clouds reached over the rim of the cirque
around the lake and crept down the walls.
30 minutes later, the most severe storm I've ever been in, no lie or
exaggeration, broke over us. It began fast and hard and only grew in
intensity.
We retreated in to our tents, my two buddies sharing a stout Marmot
4-season, myself in my TNF Slickrock, and hunkered down for the night.
Night fell without any easing of the storm. The full moon was completely
obscured, with the near continuous lighting illuminating the total
darkness. Though I was pitched on a slope, the water running under my
tent made it feel like I was lying on a cheap waterbed. I later had to
dig a trench around my tent to drain the pool that formed 2" deep under
the tent.

My Slickrock doesn't have any window to look outside, but the Marmot
did. Just barely over the thunder, I heard one of my buddies scream:
"Get out of your tent! GET OUT OF YOUR TENT!!!" After pulling on
clothes, boots and rain gear, I crawled out and joined up with the two
huddled under a tree. He told me that he watched as the lightning was
striking along the rim of the cirque, backlighting the silhouettes of
the trees....then seeing the lightning striking IN FRONT of the trees
(we were AT tree line). The instant roar of thunder after the near
continuous flashes of lighting was deafening. But that wasn't the sound
that scared us...

As the lightning struck the rim and walls of the cirque, it touched off
rock slides. The rumbling of huge boulders was competing with the
thunder. That sound alone was awesome, but THAT wasn't the scariest
sound...

Among the rumble of Volkswagen sized boulders crashing down around
us...was the absolutely terrifying sound of timber snapping. Again, we
were AT tree line... The cirque itself was not very large. I've got a
couple pictures of it for those interested. The rockslides were falling
all around us, snapping trees that were within 50-75 yards from us.

After a couple hours, the storm blew off and the full moon lit up the
cirque. The next morning, we woke to find the lake risen about 2 feet
higher than the day before. One stream had widened from narrow enough to
jump across, to about 75 feet at it's widest point at lake's edge. Huge
boulders where there was just scree before. And freshly snapped tree
trunks scattered among it all. This was right next to our camp.

Trees snapping in a rockslide less than a hundred yards from me in a
night-time severe storm is the scariest sound I've ever heard. I never
want to hear that sound again.


Michael Saenz, Associate Partner
McLarand    Vasquez    Emsiek   &   Partners,   Inc.
A r c h i t e c t u r e  |  P l a n n i n g  |  I n t e r i o r s
MVE       MVE    Institutional       MVP    International
w  w  w   .   m  v  e   -   a  r  c  h  i  t  e  c  t  s   .   c  o m

-----Original Message-----
From: pct-l-bounces@mailman.backcountry.net
[mailto:pct-l-bounces@mailman.backcountry.net] On Behalf Of
bighummel@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 10:02 AM
To: jomike@cot.net; pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
Subject: [BULK] - Re: [pct-l] scariest sound

Desolation Wilderness, 1977, snow melted off no more than a week
earlier; i.e., the ground is saturated.  Late evening, fairly strong
wind . . . the sound of a explosion like dynamite in the distance,
echoed through the valley we were in, then 15 minutes later another.
The next day we crossed two large trees blown down recently with new
spring growth on them.  We surmized . . .
 
_______________________________________________
pct-l mailing list
pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
unsubscribe or change options:
http://mailman.hack.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l