Wood Camp 1-10-05

                                                      (Images from 1-13/14-05)

In early January, days of sustained snowfall from a very moist, tropical weather flow set the stage for a major avalanche cycle in the Logan area backcountry.  Over the weekend of January 8th and 9th, winds averaged over 40mph on Logan peak and gusted up to 94mph on Mount Ogden.  Around six inches of water fell on upper elevation slopes in the three days between the 9th and the 11th.  Vast deposits of windblown snow formed giant hard slabs on slopes that were plagued by weak, sugary layers formed during previous periods of fair weather.

                                                 Almost everything in this picture slid together in one huge avalanche. 

A huge pile of snow ran way out into the Wood Camp basin.  The vertical flow pattern was caused as the deposition slowed on the edges while continuing to flow in the middle.  Some of the long vertical snow banks stacked up more than twenty feet deep above the huge glacier-like  debris.

                        This foreshortened view is of just one bowl out of several that avalanched simultaneously in Wood Camp Hollow on Monday night, (1-10-05).   As we look at it, the northeast facing lobe on the left is around 500 ft wide and 4 to 6 feet deep and failed on a November weak layer.  The southeast facing slope on viewer's right was wider still, but only 2 to 4 feet deep having failed on a layer of weak sugary snow associated with a prominent December 10th rain crust.

                        Ron Stagg is dwarfed by the pile of deposition as he begins to skirt around the terminus, which is actually well out of sight.

Large natural avalanches occurred on most of the steep slopes in the Wood Camp drainage.  This is looking up at a large crown on one of the southern bowls.

                        The huge, hard slab avalanche  ran on either side and hundreds of yards past Soucie's Ridge, a popular ascent route centered in Wood Camp Hollow.