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Gimpilator infinity/21M
Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 1684 | TRs | Pics Location: Edmonds, WA |
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Bronco Member
Joined: 20 Jun 2010 Posts: 134 | TRs | Pics
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Bronco
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Tue Jan 26, 2016 9:57 am
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cascadeclimber Member
Joined: 04 Sep 2006 Posts: 1427 | TRs | Pics
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Oh my god! Look at that erosion and horrible environmental damage! Fly the WTA and Washington DNR down there immediately to block that trail with fences and felled trees!
(sorry, I couldn't resist)
A climbing partner of mine went through there on his descent a day before this happened. My understanding is that it was this plus a lot more and that the approach has (or was) temporarily closed as a result.
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joker seeker
Joined: 12 Aug 2006 Posts: 7953 | TRs | Pics Location: state of confusion |
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joker
seeker
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Tue Jan 26, 2016 3:14 pm
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Yikes!
And yeah, cc, why don't you head out to the lateral moraine where the "trail" cuts over onto the Blue Glacier on the route up Olympus with protest signs, as I'm sure one of your favorite orgs is headed right up there to re-route that sucker (NOT!). But this flagrant strawman gives some insight into your mindset I'm guessing... (and seriously, try hiking up that supposedly blocked-by-fence-and-felled-trees trail that has you so chapped this month - sounds like it's still very accessible!!)
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Slugman It’s a Slugfest!
Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Posts: 16874 | TRs | Pics
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Slugman
It’s a Slugfest!
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Tue Jan 26, 2016 3:40 pm
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mbravenboer Member
Joined: 20 Oct 2013 Posts: 1422 | TRs | Pics Location: Seattle |
The sky seemed clear, do you know what caused it? Did a dam break or something?
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Chief Joseph Member
Joined: 10 Nov 2007 Posts: 7711 | TRs | Pics Location: Verlot-Priest Lake |
Is the entire mountain that ugly?
Go placidly amid the noise and waste, and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
Go placidly amid the noise and waste, and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
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RichP Member
Joined: 13 Jul 2006 Posts: 5634 | TRs | Pics Location: here |
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RichP
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Tue Jan 26, 2016 6:45 pm
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mbravenboer wrote: | The sky seemed clear, do you know what caused it? Did a dam break or something? |
There could be a glacier thousands of feet above this area. This is along the trail to Confluencia (3300mts) which is one of the camps on the standard route up the mountain. The video says they were on a guided three day hike which means they were not on a summit trip.
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Gimpilator infinity/21M
Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 1684 | TRs | Pics Location: Edmonds, WA |
mbravenboer wrote: | The sky seemed clear, do you know what caused it? Did a dam break or something? |
That's a very good question. I wish I had an answer. I know that some avalanches higher up melt from the force and turn into mud flows lower down.
Chief Joseph wrote: | Is the entire mountain that ugly? |
I think not. Take a look at the photos from my 2011 climb.
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Brushbuffalo Member
Joined: 17 Sep 2015 Posts: 1887 | TRs | Pics Location: there earlier, here now, somewhere later... Bellingham in between |
There may have been a sudden non-weather related release of water from beneath a glacier. These events, called glacier outburst floods (or in Iceland, jökulhlaup), are quite common at Mt. Rainier (including a "smallish" one on August 14, 2015) from the Tahoma Glacier, another one from the Kautz Glacier in 2012 and at many other locations....Japan, Alaska, Iceland etc. as well as in the Andes.
Some of the historic glacier outburst floods in Iceland have had truly stupendous volumes rivaling or even exceeding discharge volumes of the Amazon. Here's a video of one in Iceland in 2010.
What about the debris, you wonder? That comes about due to released water entraining loose material in what is called "bulking up."
This event, if a glacial outburst as I believe it is, was a small one. Note the dark, damp areas on both margins of the channel. Very recently there had been an even larger volume of material surging through. Note also that after the first surge the flow diminishes but just as suddenly peaks again. This pulsing is common and fascinating in its own right.
These last hikers had, what, 5 seconds between life and certain death. They are fortunate that at least one was on high alert. The folks did the right thing. They got out of the channel ASAP. Always better to run upslope than to try to outrun such an event downvalley, even for Usain Bolt!
Now.....will someone translate the Spanish captions? RichP?
Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still
Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still
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RichP Member
Joined: 13 Jul 2006 Posts: 5634 | TRs | Pics Location: here |
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RichP
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Tue Jan 26, 2016 8:58 pm
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Brushbuffalo wrote: | Now.....will someone translate the Spanish captions? |
"The guide was taking a group of clients on typical a three day trek in Aconcagua (park) to the first night's camp at Confluencia.
A loud sound was heard from above and the guide looks up and down (white shirt and hat) and alerted the clients to get out of the way never leaving them until they were in a safe spot." (repeats the same several times)
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Brushbuffalo Member
Joined: 17 Sep 2015 Posts: 1887 | TRs | Pics Location: there earlier, here now, somewhere later... Bellingham in between |
Thanks RichP. I figured out the white hat part but that was about it!
So it seems that this commentary was what one would expect if was a TV network here. Actually maybe coverage here would be more sensational but it is indeed a pretty spectacular little vidclip.
Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still
Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still
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Kim Brown Member
Joined: 13 Jul 2009 Posts: 6900 | TRs | Pics
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Must have been a natural dam that broke, right?
Do any of you old farts remember the pulsing mudflows that hit about every 20 minutes several times down the Whitechuck at Kennedy Hot Springs in 1975? SAR had to help some folks out. I'll buy a beer for anyone who was there.
Nature is tremendous; it's scary, frustrating and exciting to live somewhere that is still geologically trying to reach its angle of repose.
"..living on the east side of the Sierra world be ideal - except for harsher winters and the chance of apocalyptic fires burning the whole area."
Bosterson, NWHiker's marketing expert
"..living on the east side of the Sierra world be ideal - except for harsher winters and the chance of apocalyptic fires burning the whole area."
Bosterson, NWHiker's marketing expert
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Brushbuffalo Member
Joined: 17 Sep 2015 Posts: 1887 | TRs | Pics Location: there earlier, here now, somewhere later... Bellingham in between |
Kim, although the mechanism of release is not always clear, in many documented glacier outburst floods, the water accumulated beneath the ice or within the ice mass(other times it occurs on top, which makes the release more predictable).
Since liquid water is denser than ice and glaciers are shot full of crevasses and moulin (vertically melted shafts), water is able to flow down and sometimes accumulate if it doesn't have an easy way out.
Intraglacial and subglacial accumulation is virtually impossible to monitor and predict when it might release, so the ultimate release can come alarmingly rapidly, as the Aconcagua video suggests. Even supraglacial ponding can be missed if no one is looking (duh)! I would be very interested in the details surrounding this event.
I do recall the 1975 outburst flood(s) from Glacier Peak but I wasn't there as a witness (it was between my trips there...the Brushbuffalo photo was on Frostbite Ridge in 1978). So I don't get a beer from you.
At least in that flood the old two story patrol cabin at Kennedy Hot Spring survived....unlike the rain-induced flood in October 2003 that wiped it out as well as the campground and the hot spring enclosure.
Never did like that tepid colliform- filled cesspool anyway!
Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still
Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still
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puzzlr Mid Fork Rocks
Joined: 13 Feb 2007 Posts: 7220 | TRs | Pics Location: Stuck in the middle |
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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks
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Wed Jan 27, 2016 2:31 am
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Holy Crap! Great that everyone made it safe. It seemed like this had happened before because the upper guide was glancing uphill frequently.
And kudos to the camera operator. First of all, HORIZONTAL, thank goodness, then stuck to the action except for one short pan over to the people that escaped. So often the camera pans wildly all over and you can't see anything very well.
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