http://islandparksnow.net/photos_etc.html
All of the photos on this page are "thumbnails", so--just click on them to enlarge. The following 3 photos in the photo documentary are courtesy of Doug Chabot--Gallatin N.F. Avalance Center. The new "surface hoar" photo (lower right, below) was shot at Henrys Lake on 1/25/06.
The slide path on the right in this photo is of a 500' wide X 1,000' long event at 10,000' elev. on Sheep Mtn. near Cooke City, MT on 1/22,05. The slope aspect was N-NE. Four riders went up the slope and over the ridge into the basin above. The slide was triggered as the last machine crossed the fracture line, and none of the riders knew they had started an avalanche. A sympathetic release occurred on the left side of the slope at the same time.
This column sheared in a snow pit near the two avalanches above. As stated by Doug Chabot of the MT Avalanche Center: "It doesn't take much imagination to see the consequences of a slide" under these conditions of thick, dense layers (as evidenced by this large column) sitting on top of a weak layer of faceted snow.
Surface hoar layer on 1/25/06. This is an example of the type of crystals that form on cold, clear nights, and become the unstable layer that causes many slab avalanches when buried by new snow.
This is a closeup of the triggered slide at left.
Not knowing they had triggered the slide, the 4 riders turned around in the upper basin and rode over the blind crest of the ridge in the left side of this photo, (see tracks) and dropped over the 7' fracture line.
They took a nasty ride through the rocks. One was seriously injured.
They were very fortunate they were not caught in the avalanche when it slid.
The results would have been MUCH different.
All of the photos on this page are "thumbnails", so--just click on them to enlarge. The following 3 photos in the photo documentary are courtesy of Doug Chabot--Gallatin N.F. Avalance Center. The new "surface hoar" photo (lower right, below) was shot at Henrys Lake on 1/25/06.
The slide path on the right in this photo is of a 500' wide X 1,000' long event at 10,000' elev. on Sheep Mtn. near Cooke City, MT on 1/22,05. The slope aspect was N-NE. Four riders went up the slope and over the ridge into the basin above. The slide was triggered as the last machine crossed the fracture line, and none of the riders knew they had started an avalanche. A sympathetic release occurred on the left side of the slope at the same time.
This column sheared in a snow pit near the two avalanches above. As stated by Doug Chabot of the MT Avalanche Center: "It doesn't take much imagination to see the consequences of a slide" under these conditions of thick, dense layers (as evidenced by this large column) sitting on top of a weak layer of faceted snow.
Surface hoar layer on 1/25/06. This is an example of the type of crystals that form on cold, clear nights, and become the unstable layer that causes many slab avalanches when buried by new snow.
This is a closeup of the triggered slide at left.
Not knowing they had triggered the slide, the 4 riders turned around in the upper basin and rode over the blind crest of the ridge in the left side of this photo, (see tracks) and dropped over the 7' fracture line.
They took a nasty ride through the rocks. One was seriously injured.
They were very fortunate they were not caught in the avalanche when it slid.
The results would have been MUCH different.
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