Huge slab avalanche on Turtle Snowfield, MRNP

From the current Mount Rainier Climbing and Route Conditions Report , updated April 14, 2005:<br>

All of this new snow also brings heightened avalanche concerns. We have seen both small and large slides breaking loose recently. A huge natural slab avalanche ripped loose recently on the Turtle Snowfield. This slide had a 5-foot crown that spanned the entire width of the snowfield, and ran the entire length of the Snowfield (yikes!). Make sure that you are evaluating the terrain, snowpack, and weather with your avalanche eyes; don't just assume that the slope is stable because it is spring, and you want to ski.

<br><br>Just a word of caution for those eager to get out and ski steeper wind-loaded slopes during the upcoming fair weather and high-pressure!<br><br>For those who might not be familiar with the area, the "Turtle" is the unofficial name for the permanent snowfield (actually an old glacial remnant) below Camp Hazard on the south side of Rainier, marked on this Topozone map . The Turtle provides an excellent uncrevassed ski run up to 11600 ft, one of the highest points which can be skied on Rainier without glacier travel precautions, and is spectacular in spring corn conditions.<br><br>I'll try to get a photo of this avalanche crown the next time I'm on Rainier, probably using a long telephoto lens from Paradise.<br>

I think I can actually see it in the webcam: www.nps.gov/mora/cam/paradise.jpg <br><br>Or maybe that's just a shadow...let's see if it's still there in a hour or two...Yikes!

it sure looks like you can see the crown...about halfway up the turtle, running across the whole width...<br>crazy...

I'm having trouble getting the Paradise webcam image to fully load, only the top 2/3 or so loads right now. But here's a 2x enlargement of the area of interest, centered on the Turtle:<br><br> <br>

Well, I finally managed to get a high-resolution photo of the avalanche crown on May 1, the day of the Silver Skis reenactment (torrential rain the previous weekend had prevented any photography). Even 3-4 weeks after the avalanche occurred, the crown is still prominently visible despite being partially filled in with new snow. The massive debris field littering the lower portion of the Turtle is testament to the huge quantity of snow entrained in the avalanche.<br><br> <br><br> Click here for an enlarged version of this photo (1200x900, resized from the 2048x1536 original).<br><br>By the way, this photo was taken from the Paradise parking lot (about 5 miles away) using a Canon Powershot S1 IS digicam, which features a 10x 38-380 mm optical image-stabilized zoom lens and a total weight of about 1 lb. This is simply the most amazing $350 camera on the market, despite having only 3.2 megapixels. I can't recommend this camera strongly enough, it has no equal (under $1500-2000 and 3-4 lbs) for taking high-resolution zoomed route photos from a distance. Very useful for route planning in steep or glaciated terrain, if you can get a view of the route beforehand. The new Powershot S2 IS will be available in June, upgraded to 5 megapixels and a 12x 36-432 mm zoom.<br><br>

Hey Amar, thanks for the photo and info about the Canon camera. My camera is now 3.5 years and 15000 photos old and is showing the abuse I've given it. Photos I have seen and worked with from Canon cameras seem to be very high quality, and the S1/S2 sounds like a great camera.

Charles, my previous camera (a Canon S40, with 4 megapixels and 3x zoom) is also over 3 years old, with about 20,000 photos. The S40 takes great photos and is exceptionally rugged and compact for ski mountaineering use, with a sliding lens cover that effectively turns the camera into a tiny armored brick when closed. I dropped the S40 on pavement near my car a couple years ago, it suffered no detectable change in performance (I doubt that most other cameras including the S1 would have survived that drop in working order). I've now owned 4 Canon digicams, including the A50 and S20 before the S40.<br><br>I bought the S1 last August thinking it would just be a supplemental camera, a car-only or hiking-only camera, but I was so enthralled by the amazing 10x zoom that the S1 quickly became my primary camera. I can live with the slight extra bulk and lack of armored body / lens cap just to have that huge IS zoom. The image-stabilizer is not only great for long telephoto shots, it's even useful in low-light conditions at wide angle where I can take sharp handheld photos at only 1/8 or even 1/6 second shutter speeds instead of 1/60 or 1/40 with a non-IS lens. The S1 shoots very high-quality video too at 640x480, 30 fps, but I haven't shot much ski video yet.<br><br>I'm seriously considering buying the S2 as soon as it comes out, for the even longer zoom and extra megapixels, despite the fact that it uses SD cards instead of CF (extra $$ for new cards) and even though my S1 is still quite new. The S2 addresses and fixes essentially all of the minor issues and quibbles with the S1 (most importantly the low megapixels if you're making big prints).<br><br>

I recently bought a new 7mp, Olympus C-7000, that works very well. Most appealing to me is the 5x optical zoom (38-190mm), plus 6x digital on top of that, contained in a 9oz. body size of 4"x 2.3"x1.7". Very compact! I took a picture in full digital zoom without a tripod, (image stabilizer would be a nice feature on this camera), printed it off on my cheap printer, and was very happy with the result.....Not as powerful as a 10x zoom but the smallest/lightest camera available with these features.