A Newsletter for Friends of the CAIC

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$UIAA $Union Internationale des Assocdiations d'Alpinisme$$

Monkey Businesscontinued from page threeSTORM 1Our big weather/avalanche cycle consisted ofthree distinct storms. The first arrived on December29th, at the end of a long stretch of snow-weakeningcold and mostly dry weather. These conditions helpweak layers to form near the surface of the snowpack.The result is a rotten foundation for future snows toland upon.The first in this series of southwesterly stormsarrived fast and furious and set the pace for the firsthalf of January. It began with a bully layer of slipperygraupel (a precipitation particle that looks like a smallStyrofoam ball) that was soon topped with heavy wetsnow. This was accompanied by sustained wind averagesin the 30’s and gusts reaching a whopping 90+mph. As the storm unfolded, we anticipated that 1.5to 2 inches of water would kick off a natural avalanchecycle, and it did. By late that Wednesday afternoon,we had received 2 inches of snow water equivalentin less than 24-hours. That led to four naturaland seven mitigated avalanches hitting the road over RedMountain Pass. The Molas/Coal Bank side of Highway 550 sawfour natural and three mitigated avalanches reach the highwaycenterline. Spot road closures for avalanche mitigation andcleanup finally evolved to a full closure of the passes. MotherNature’s wrath of high winds, high precipitation rates andapproaching darkness declared, “You are not the boss of me!”The road remained closed until 4 pm the next day. The stormdumped the most snow on Molas Pass. We measured 21 inchesof snowfall and 2.85 inches of water in just over 24-hours.STORM 2With only a few days to catch up, a second strong Pacific stormarrived late on January 3rd. Once again the wind averaged 30mph with gusts reaching into the mid 70’s. These were perfectconditions for transporting large amounts of snow into our avalanchestart zones. Temperatures were warm and thus the snowwas heavy. As the snowfall reached 2 inches an hour, there wasanother natural avalanche cycle and Red Mountain Pass closedagain. It didn’t open for another 43-hours. Natural and mitigatedavalanches put as much as 15 feet of snow on the road. This timethe Coal Bank study plot won the “most snowfall” prize, with 35inches of snow and over 3 inches of snow water equivalent. Withlarge amounts of new snow and water, high winds and a weakunderlying snowpack, we had all the ingredients for an avalanchecycle. Once we got back on the road we saw the remains ofnatural avalanches on all aspects. However, much to our dismaythe snow in many of our larger paths remained intact. We hadhoped that more of the avalanche paths would “clean out.” Thecurrent weather pattern was forecast to continue, and as the loadon our weak snowpack continued to climb, we could feel thepressure of the situation build.BIG STORMThe weather pattern did continue. Two days later, a superstormmoved into the San Juan Mountains from the southwest.The last storm of our record breaking cycle began Friday January7th, and battering the region through the following Wednesday.This last storm came crashing down upon us, snowing an inch anhour or more for six days. The initial wave of snow was low indensity, but as the storm continued the snow became wet andPowder cloud from East Riverside path reaches Highway 550. (Photo: Gary King)heavy. This is a classic “upside-down” snow storm and a textbookscenario for an avalanche cycle. Strong southwest winds, gustinginto the 60’s, compounded the situation. In the wee hours ofJanuary 8th, our most reliable performer, the Blue Point avalanchepath, put three feet of snow across 40 feet of the centerline. Soonafterward, an avalanche in the East Riverside path released.Dragging the snow from adjacent paths in its wake, the avalancherumbled down into the Ironton Gorge. These slides covered theroad with four feet of snow. Later in the storm, these paths wouldavalanche again and actually pack the only avalanche shed coveringthe highway with three feet of snow.On the Coal Bank side, an avalanche in the Henry Brown pathcovered the road with some of the other paths quickly joining thefray. With darkness nipping at our heals, wind and snowfallquickly moved snow back into the start zones as we completedthe avalanche mitigation work. Dangerous travel conditions andsanity finally won out, and by 11:00 pm the north and south sectionsof Highway 550 out of Silverton were closed. As the motherof all storms continued, the monstrous avalanche paths flowingdown from peaks high above Red Mountain Pass and County Rd110 defied all “control”. The roads remained closed for sevenlong days.Our next day of work began early on the morning of January9th. While conducting avalanche hazard mitigation we used boththe Avalauncher (an explosive delivery system designed for avalanchework), and brought out our WWII era artillery, a 105 mmHowitzer. We concentrated our efforts on the passes south ofSilverton, hoping to open one escape route from the town. But inspite of all the fire-power, frustration became the theme of theday with only a few avalanches releasing. While weather andsnowpack conditions certainly validated the previous night’s decisionto close the roads, we still expected big “results” to validateour forecast. Unfortunately, the most action was caused by afrightened big-horn sheep that kicked off a series of small slides inthe East Lime Creek path while we were shooting West Lime.We eventually worked our way back to Silverton, tails tuckedbetween our legs. We had managed to get the Coal Bank side ofHighway 550 open. I was happy because this meant my husbandcould high-tail it home from Durango and help shovel snow.There was enough daylight for one attempt to open RedMountain Pass. Disappointed with our progress, we geared up forone set of Howitzer shots on the Red Mountain side.4The Beacon, Winter 2006 ! Volume 10, Number 2
It was late in the day, everyone was tired, cold and grumpy.After little action on Coal Bank Pass, there were no expectationsof seeing significant results from the final shoot of the day. So offwe went, CDOT crew and forecasters dragging the Howitzer andan entourage of bored observers from the newspaper andPrescott College students. Our plan was to shoot the Battleship,one of the most notorious slide paths leading up towards RedMountain Pass from Silverton.At 12,400 feet, the wind-loaded, 35 degree start zones of theBattleship rise nearly 3000 feet above the Mineral Creek Gorge.Between the bottom of the path and the highway area gorge and 300 feet of elevation gain. One mightsurmise that a 300 foot rise and a river gorge wouldadequately buffer the highway from the runout of anavalanche. Like many assumptions, this one wouldtoo prove to be wrong. The forces and speedsinvolved in a full-path release in the Battleship are sogreat that the avalanche can climb up the oppositeside and deposit as much as five feet of snow on theroad. The wind blast alone can cause severe damage,hurling large trees across the pavement. While anumber of folks in the crew had seen the Battleshiprun, few were prepared for what they were about toBattleship reachesfull throttle(Photo: Ann Melick)witness. We lobed one lonely Howitzer round intoone of the Battleship’s start zones. The shot shatteredthe enormous slab and sent a full depth, full path,Tasmanian Devil racing down the mountainside. Afterthe dust settled, our guests giggled in amazementand we made our way home satisfied that our perception of theavalanche danger had been correct.In this business, we like to say that “close calls are not acceptable.”I can still recall, upon my initial arrival into Silverton, Jerry’slitany of dos and don’ts on the topic of “being safe out there” and“drama” avoidance: who to ski with, who not to ski with, who totalk to, who not to talk to, and even who to drink with! Whetherthis was “sage” advice or flat-out gossip, it was never takenlightly. But then there are extraordinary situations, extraordinarystorms, and that’s when extraordinary things happen, in spite ofour conservative mantra.And so it snowed, and snowed and snowed, inches per hour.While the Red Mountain side of Highway 550 was lockeddown by massive avalanches, the Coal Bank/Molas side was keptopen even though it actually received the most snowfall from thissouthern storm (between January 8th and the morning of January11th the Coal Bank Study Site had already received 63 inches ofsnow that equaled 6.5 inches of water). Highway 550 south ofSilverton has fewer massive paths that threaten the road. For thisreason there was a valiant effort by all (CDOT crew and the CAICforecasters) to keep this artery into Silverton open as long as possible.At this time there had already been one health related emergencyevacuation.By January 11th, seemingly endless avalanche mitigation measureshad become dangerously mundane. Nearly 100 rounds ofexplosives were used on the Molas/Coal Bank side of Highway550. Would it ever stop? Would we ever sleep? As the day grewlong, visibility became poor and the race was on to get one lastset of avalauncher shots off at the paths closest to town, theJenny Parkers and Peacock. Vehicles, including one fully loadedfuel tanker bound for the one Silverton gas station, backed up onthe road waiting to be cleared to drive down into town. While theforecasters, Jerry and Mark, and the CDOT crew were setting up.CDOT managers, Dennis McCoy and Paul DeJulio, made a lastminute decision to escort that group of vehicles carefully downinto Silverton before our shoot. Once they were moved to safety,Dennis turned around to make one last pass up the road to insurethat the road was indeed clear. Driving on instinct in near zero visibility,Dennis got “up-close and personal” with an avalanchecoming out of the Harley Short path. With one hand on the wheeland the other on the radio, Dennis had the presence of mind tocall out “Guys, I think it’s time to shut her down!” Dennis madehis way back up to Molas Pass before he realized his truck wasover-heating. He cautiously crossed over Coal Bank Pass. There hewas able to coast downhill to the Cascade CDOT Barn where hediscovered a broken fan-belt caused by dense snow packed intohis radiator and engine compartment.After Dennis’ close call, the avalauncher team also decided itwas time to cut their losses and bail off the mountain.Heading back toward town, they found themselvestrapped between two paths that ran in rapid succession.Blocked to the south by slides from the Peacockand Jenny Parker paths, they turned to find the roadto safety and Silverton blocked by the GladstoneTwins. The “twins” are two narrow paths that dropon to Highway 550 just south of Silverton. Afteryears with few avalanches, large trees had grown inthe paths. Although they were still listed as avalanchepaths, they were no longer considered much of athreat. That day 100 year old trees were splintered,and several nervous hours were passed while aCDOT crew used heavy equipment to clear a paththrough the debris and allow the group to return toSilverton. This series of events began the longestclosure of Coal Bank and Molas Passes during thisstormy period. They were closed for 51 hours, andwe finally got a little sleep.Already blanketed with 6–7 feet of snow, the town of Silvertonwas abuzz with activity. Plows piled enormous rows of goopdown the center of Greene Street obscuring buildings on eitherside. Residents frantically shoveled roofs to prevent collapse or acreep/glide incident that could break out windows or worse, killpeople or pets. It had probably been 50 years since anyone hadworried about the Naked Lady path off Kendall Mountain. Thetown’s Visitor Center and a few houses stood in the runout zoneand could be destroyed if a large avalanche came roaring downthe path. There had been evacuations toward Eureka, where SanJuan County plow driver and two snowmobilers had close callswith the white beasts.When we crawled out from under our beds on January 15th,we discovered large avalanches in paths that had not run full trackcontinued on page sixDozer works to clean up debris on Highway 550 at theEast Riverside snowshed. (Photo: Susan Hale)The Beacon, Winter 2006 ! Volume 10, Number 2 5
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Page 3: Avalanches andMonkey Businessby Sus
Page 7 and 8: Sue Ferguson,1953-2005: GrandDame o

A Newsletter for Friends of the CAIC

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