Big Ol' Cornice Collapses.

[JoshK]

I thought of all y'all who had greybeard adventures when I was on the top of Colonial Peak the evening before last and experienced a sizable cornice collapse. I had climbed the peak from the Colonial-Neve glacier Col and was on the summit at roughly 6:30pm. I was peering over inspecting the massively impressive north face when fifty feet down the ridge a massive cornice broke. Being on the summit I was well out of any danger but i got to watch this slide tumble down a couple of thousand feet grabbing more and more snow from every slope it crossed. Watching the entire thing white wash a line down the entire face from above was pretty remarkable. As it rolled over the steepest part of the face I lost track only to see debris dust become visible in the valley below the face a minute later - and something like 3 thousand feet below.

 

What was paritcularly scary is from earlier on in the approach the face looked surprisingly good for this time of year, esp. compared to what I expected. Everybody be careful out there - the cornices on the higher peaks this year are out of control huge in many places.

[wayne]

I remmember cornices, just havent seen them in a while

 

I will be in town fri Josh, give a call