Avalanche Sequence

[Jim Dockery]

I just posted a pano taken from the summit of Keyes Pk. in the Cascades near my house on my birthday a few years ago. Then I remembered the cool avalanche that I watched take place just below me that morning. I had my camera out and ready for other shots so was lucky to capture a sequence. This is a summer avalanche where a snow/ice/glacier slope that was laying on a rock slab finally let go (melt water lubricated the interface between rock and ice).

View down the north face just before avalanche. You can see the debris field from earlier ice falls below the cracks. Mt. Baker is the distant volcano.

#1, I could hear ice moving before I could see it, so pointed my camera down and zoomed into the ice-fall area.

#2 Glad I was far above this!

#3

#4

#5

#6 Those last chunks of flying ice are the size of small houses.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Neat sequence, and I bet you were glad to be out of it.

 

[Douglas Sherman]

Great job here, Jim. I have never asked you what you taught , but I am guessing something in the earth sciences based on what you love and post here.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Nice sequencing Jim. I like the first image and the monochrome conversion.

 

[AlanLichty]

Good to have a high viewpoint with your camera ready when it broke off. Great sequence.

 

[JimFox]

That's super cool sequencing. Great job on being there are ready!

 

[Jim Dockery]

Thanks for the comments guys. This makes a very dramatic sequence in a slide show.

Douglas, I taught elementary school starting out with 5 years at 6th grade (all subjects), then 7 years K-8th P.E., back in the classroom for 3 years of 3rd and 4th, then finishing up with 18 years of k-5 P.E. I was so lucky to be teaching P.E. when all the testing mania hit. It also kept me in good shape because I believed in leading by example and did every exercise I could with my students.

Of course as a climber/skier I have more than a passing interest in geology, the forces of nature, and how they work in the mountains. I never did take a college geology class which I regret since I would have loved the field trips around Utah. Two of my old climbing partners were geologist though so I picked a lot up from them.