Avalanche in the Adirondacks

“I saw this on another forum, but thought I’d post it here, because it is a good reminder to those of us that hike here in the east that though they are rare avalanches do happen in the eastern mountains.

http://www.adkforum.com/showthread.php?t=5893
“Today I passed in front of Trap Dyke, there was an avalanche precisely at this place. I do not when it append. All the trees have been swept in front of it.
Here is two pics of that avalanche.




”

yvon

For those that are familiar with the Adirondacks, the Trap Dyke is a popular ice climbing route in winter and class III or IV rock route in summer up Mount Colden. From what I have heard the avalanche happened early in the morning (1-3am) on March 14. This was around the same time the region received torrential rain that helped trigger the avalanche. Fortunately with it being that early no one was around the Dyke when it happened to my knowledge.

This is the second avalanche I’ve heard about in the Adirondacks in the past two weeks. The other one was on the north face of Gothics. If anyone is going to be venturing up a mountain in the northeast over the next few weeks, please be careful.”

“The buzz was all around this weekend in Lake Placid about the Trap Dyke avalanche, but I didn't here anything about an avy on the NF of Gothics. I have a friend who was looking into going up there this weekend for ice climbing so I was checking on conditions for him, nobody said anything about an avalanche on Gothics, you sure about that?”

“This is where I heard about the one on Gothics.

http://www.viewsfromthetop.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16360

It was on the actual face, not the trail up the north side.”

“Once again:

http://access.jibc.bc.ca/avalancheFirstResponse.htm

Doug”

“Thanks zac. They rode a snow slab down the face of Gothics and noone got hurt... yowza!”

“The trap dike is where landslides have occurred in the past. There was a big landslide on the other side of Colden some time back in the 90s. The Daks are steep and unstable.”

“I want to do Algonquin this week-end.”

“Around 1990 our pediatrician in Randolph, Vermont was caught in an avalanche at Tuckerman's Ravine in New Hampshire.

I asked him about a wicked scar on his fore arm and he related the tale.

Somehow he managed to "butt-surf" about 300 meters and come out on top.
All he got was a branch driven clear through his fore arm.

A teenage boy standing rather close to him was not caught up in it.”

“Ummm... why do you think its called "Avalanche Pass"?”

“Beats me!”

“Bobo! Pennsy!

Were you guys watching ENS? Are you 100% certain he had nothing to do with this one too? Did you not learn a valuable lesson in RG?

;)”

“What did ENS do?”