Avalanche and wildlife
It’s hard to think long about mountain goats—especially here on the precipitous coast—without wondering how they deal with catastrophic snow, rocks, or mud descending from above . . . or as skiers fear, slumping out from underfoot.
Dzisk’u Ḵaadí, snowslide of the little owls (Snowslide Creek Path). Original of photo on right, moments after the event, is a high-res top-to-bottom panorama from telephoto views, sharp enough to detect goats, were they crazy enough to linger here. Panel on left is a hillshade simulation from LiDAR flown in 2012.
This winter I’m learning that if you spend enough time looking for goats, you will see avalanches. Quick-draw filming, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be my forté. Near the beginning of this 3-minute slideshow is an avalanche from the multi-basin starting zone that Bill Glude named Greenweenie. I was already carrying my telephoto camera on the tripod when the clatter of rocks sounded overhead.
That particular chute rarely runs all the way to Perseverance Trail, and I was way down in the wellfield, so the slide wasn’t too alarming and I set up as fast as I could. Even so, the most exciting first 5 seconds were over by the time I pressed the video button.
So what’s the solution, if you want exciting, start-to-finish movies of avalanches? The answer’s long been known to residents of X’áat’ T’áak, beside the island (Douglas town). Over on the mainland, Dzisk’u Ḵaadí, snowslide of the little owls (Snowslide Creek Path) is regularly ‘cleansed’ by crews from ADOT, and timing of road closures are announced on outlets including CBJ’s Urban Avalanche Advisory. Successful triggers—like fireworks—are often hailed by cheers from spectators at Sandy Beach
Yesterday, March 26, 2022, I drove over to Sandy to try my hand at avalanche filming from the respectful distance of 1.6 miles away. Wind was challenging and there’s a bit of tripod-quiver at max-zoom. But what a great way to learn about the power of snow—and add a few more paragraphs to the story of my favorite mountain mammals.
