Edith Cavell tsunami closes access road

[stinkyclimber]

I was just looking at some trip planning options and checking out the MCR reports at the ACMG and came across this doozy. Bummer if you had your sights set on Edith Cavell. But would have been awesome to see. The mother of all trundles.

 

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"Ghost Glacier" hanging on the N face of Edith Cavell just to the left of Angel glacier, fell off the mountain sometime last night before 0530hrs. A tsunami ensued when it impacted the lake below. The torrent left ice chunks in the parking lot and road, took out some small structures and the picnic area, and left 3' of gravel in places.

 

Cavell road is closed until further notice.

 

Garth Lemke

Visitor Safety Specialist -JNP

ACMG assistant ski

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[dberdinka]

That is awesome.

 

This post needs pics......

[G-spotter]

There's a bunch of pics in the Jasper Trails Alliance page on Facebook. Or the Jasper NP page. Can't remember which one offhand.

[G-spotter]

Here we go

 

[AlpineK]

Crazy

 

[img:center]https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/s720x720/404055_474324802585290_1016023684_n.jpg[/img]

 

[img:center]https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/305069_375694495837746_1196498207_n.jpg[/img]

 

 

[wfinley]

That is incredible. Was anyone on the peak when this occurred? Imagine climbing the North face and witnessing this!

 

Here's the view looking down at the lake from above. The parking lot from the above photo is the clearing at the end of the moraine.

 

[Buckaroo]

Yeah, just imagine if you were approaching the N face anywhere near the Angel glacier.

[G-spotter]

Of note is that there have been a number of significant icefall events. The largest of course is with the Ghost glacier calving off the North Face of Mt. Edith Cavell. This resulted in a huge debris event and tsunami that created incredible damage in the parking lot and adjoining facilities. In the past 48 hours, two other, albeit much smaller, icefall events occurred on Aberdeen and Lefroy. Between these events and other major landslide events, there is a lot of speculation on climate change, global warming, and the effects of the above average precipitation in June. Regardless of the cause, it is worth giving very careful consideration to any routes threatened by seracs.

 

From today's MCR from Marc Ledwidge

[wfinley]

More pix....

 

This is from the Jasper FB page:

 

and this is a pic I took 11 years ago:

[G-spotter]

Also of note, Rick Collier was killed this past weekend and several companions were injured when a ledge he was standing on on Geikie broke off the mountain.

 

Record rainfall in early summer is leading to increased instability in the mountains this summer. No question.

[JasonG]

I'm curious if there is some indication that this has happened before? It seemed to be perched rather precariously . . .

[G-spotter]

Nope. It used to be a lot bigger. The remnant got more and more perched as it got smaller, then boom.

[AlpineK]

It's been a few years, but the last trip to the Canadian Rockies in August featured water flowing on faces. Probably not the equivalent of current conditions, but we got shut down on lots of objectives due to water.

 

The Eastern N-Face route of Edith Cavell was a river. That's close to the area that is releasing big now.

[AlpineK]

Things are kind of different now . Doesn't look like anybody's going to drive their Winnebago to the Edith Cavell parking lot for some time.

 

[img:center]https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/225027_381548218585707_1067334238_n.jpg[/img]

[olyclimber]

Gravity!