Comments on: PNW Practices Random Acts of Avalanche Destruction

By: Arrival « Dongshow Productions

Arrival « Dongshow Productions — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 09:52:09 +0000

[...] Dave Ridgeway and practice skiing with a smile, or study up on some of the crazy avalanche stories going around eithing with video, or strange sunny settings. And while we have been thinking that it’s [...]

By: CesarO

CesarO — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:34:34 +0000

Yep, in fact one of the lift towers up at Hyak took a while to topple over after the initial slide, after more land eroded at its base. Last week’s rampant land(mud)slides and record river flooding in PNW was a consequence of multiple days of big snow accumalations (unusual sub-freezing temps) down at sealevel followed by a warming trend (snow levels raising ~ 7K”) with heavy widespread rainfall – damn those fickle weather patterns.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 03:55:00 +0000

A friend I was skiing with today said that the Hyak slide was technically considered a landslide as the failure mode was liquified mud and that it just happened to have snow on it.

By: Mike Traslin

Mike Traslin — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:28:01 +0000

Wow!Things are getting very scary on the north shore mountains and whistler as well!Actually the whole coast range!
Normally I have been able to hit the steeps.I have not seen or heard of conditions like this since the late 70′s though I was just a tad pole in the 70′s so I did not see much anyways!
I hope everyone plays safe on the coast and cascades,because I know how everyone is accustomed to hitting the steeps year after year with out much thought!
TREVOR WOULD DO IT!

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:43:33 +0000

Is this a climax avalanche, landslide, or both? There must be countless spectacular topography changes all over the North Cascades. Crikey!

By: CesarO

CesarO — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:27:25 +0000

Alpental is a favorite backcountry area to ski and when you see this climax slide on the relatively low-angled Hyak slope, as you mentioned Andrew, it makes one wonder what’s happening on the steeper bc terrain around Aly… I plan to find out soon as the avy danger is finally subsiding here in the PNW. The usual (and unwelcomed) Pineapple Express we seem to get every winter up this way is always full of surprises.