Adirondack avalanches

For those interested in Adirondack avalanches, we just posted a story on our Web site. Click here . There have been more avalanches in the region than people realize.

Thanks! This is a real public service that you folks have done in publishing this article. I'm going to forward a link to the avalanche-oriented folks that I know. Many of them will be a little surprised. Better to have that sensation at a desk .......

Explorer Editor said:

There have been more avalanches in the region than people realize.

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How many? It was my understanding that incidents like this are rare. Maybe less rare now that there's even more people engaging in winter activities in the ADKs?

Re: Re: Adirondack avalanches

stoopid said:

How many? It was my understanding that incidents like this are rare. Maybe less rare now that there's even more people engaging in winter activities in the ADKs?

Click to expand...

I learned of 15 or so, some small, some pretty serious, over the past few decades. They're still uncommon, but many people may think there is no danger of avalanche at all.

3 of us were climbing the Cliff slide one January. I was in front, and we were most of the way up. As we stopped for a second to take in the view, the entire slab fractured just above me, all the way across the slide. The fracture was deep and made a "crack" sound when it happened. All 3 of us were below it, and we GINGERLY tiptoed (if you can do that in deep snow with your heart pounding) above the fracture and continued on. It didn't let go while we were around, but the slab was teetering and I'm sure the avalanche fell not too long afterward.
Years later, this still brings back goosebumps.

That's a great article.

I've never witnessed an avalanche, but in September of 1999 a group of us actually heard the most recent slide on Mount Colden. Hurricane Floyd was to blame after having saturated the ground within the past week. We were backpacking in the area, bagging some peaks, and had made camp that night about a mile from the shelters at Marcy Dam to avoid the crowds. We heard a strange rumbling, and one of the guys swears he felt it. At the time, we all wondered if that had been a landslide, but dismissed it for lack of knowing. We figured there had to be some other logical explanation (wind, imagination, thunder, earthquake?) The next morning, as we reached Marcy Dam, a helicopter was hovering near the freshly scarred mountain. A ranger gave us the scoop and pointed out the massive slide. It was amazing.

avalanches...even in the central adirondacks

Wondering if many folks are aware of the avalanche on the Snowy slide on 3/18/99. Check out the report at:

http://www.csac.org/Incidents/1998-99/19990318-NewYork.html

Snowy slide

That was one of the avalanches we included in a list of incidents that ran with the print version of the article. I talked to the guy who set it off, and he said it was not a big deal. He fell and triggered a small slough of snow. His skiing partner, down the slope, stepped out of the way, but I was told he would not have been buried in any case.

Great thread, most folks don't realize the danger right here in our 'back yard"!

Great article. My eyes got opened in the bowl below the North Face of Gothics in '98 or '99. I skied in to climb the North Face and the snow was so perfect I decided to take a run down the bowl once before the climb. When I got to the bottom and looked back up, the left side of the slide had slid. The runout traveled well down into the area I had just skied. Pretty freaky. No camera of course, but I can still see it when I shut my eyes.