North Sister Thayer Glacier Avalanche

There's a story in today's Oregonian on this.<br><br> Story here <br><br>It includes the following amusing quote from a National Guard official:<br>

"To be on a mountain in spring, that's pretty iffy," Fristad said.

Jeff -didn't we have this discussion earlier in the week about the possiblilities of this happening? I find it interesting that they warned about the 7000ft level in the report. I don't know that area, maybe they got a lot of snow from 7 to 5000 ft during the week or I guess that is for the thousands of yards of cement that would be poured on top of you at the 7000ft level if you are in the path. Good info thanks for the report. I am assuming wind loading and thermo daytime heating was part of the problem? I did not read the exposure. <br>Joe

Yup Joe, it was just like we discussed last week. The Thayer glacier faces almost dead east and the main face is steep--definitely prime avalanche terrain. I imagine warming was a factor since their cell phone call occurred at 1:30pm.<br><br>The Oregonian article is frustrating. The avalanche statement the article refers to is the NWAC bulletin (which it technically doesn't cover anything south of Hood--though that's not the point). The Oregonain article states the NWAC bulletin stated, "Climbers and skiers were urged to pay attention to snow conditions for backcountry areas at 7,000 feet and below". This is an error! The NWAC bulletin issued on Friday was titled, "A REMINDER TO CLIMBERS AND SKIERS TO PAY ATTENTION TO SNOW CONDITIONS AT HIGHER ELEVATIONS THROUGH THE WEEKEND".<br><br>Note NWAC stated "higher elevations", not 7000ft. The 7000ft figure must have came from the Oregonian not bothering to read beyond the first few sentences of the NWAC bulletin, which had the likely boilerplate 7000ft figure on it. <br><br>There's a thread about the incident on Cascadeclimbers here . The victims are reported to be "very experienced".

Thank you sir gaper jeffey, for keeping it real in the PNW. Ever since i got kicked off Teletips.com, I have missed communicating with the people that always seem to get their jib on...<br><br> I'm sure that you and your Dynafits are getting along just fine! I would love to have an affair with some of those bindings in the future. I am going steady with some old school Diamars for now. I have flirted with a pair of Diamir Freerides that I own. They reside on a pair of Explosive 3's. My new boots(Scarpa Matrix), are compatible with Dynafits... <br> <br> If you ever are in the Shasta area, let me know...<br>

Here is more information about the "hikers who walked into the path of an avalanche":<br>www.traditionalmountaineering.org/Report...er_Miller-Ellers.htm

We hope this informed any folks on Memorial Day weekend who did not know about the natural function of east faceing steep snow slopes in the Oregon Cascades.
--trad_guy