massive snowpack & climax avalanches

[orcaland@halcyon.com]

Dear Greg (& y'all can pass this on to any others crazy enough to think 
of thruhiking thru the Cascades this year):
	
This is the facts, dude. La Nina has caused record-breaking
rainfall and snowfall in Washington State - I don't know about anywhere 
else. This has been by far the wettest winter on record with the 
heaviest rainfall ever recorded in the lowlands for the whole winter 
(local or single-day records not included) and the heaviest snow fall on 
record in the Olympics and Cascades. For the first time ever, for 
example, the ski areas on Mt. Baker are closed as the snow is up to the 
bottom of the lifts. Mt. Baker has 800 inches and growing. There are 
reports of almost a 1000 inches of snow in places. One report says La 
Nina allowed only 3 hrs of total clear
sunshine in Seattle for the month of January. Avalanches have closed 
many of the smaller roads and sometimes the freeways. Climax avalanches 
are forcasted for spring and well into summer of 1999. Climax avalanches 
usually occurr only once or twice every 100 years, but they will be 
everywhere this year in the mountains. A climax avalanche is a monstrous 
juggernaut that roars thru trees and all, stripping the mountain of 
vegetation down to the soil, crossing valleys and surging up the flanks 
of opposite mountains. Who knows what kind of spring and summer we will 
actually have in the wake of El Nino-La Nina, but you are guaranteed to 
have huge floods farther up small tributaries than normal, trails and 
roads and foot bridges will be obliterated if not covered well into 
summer, and it may be buggier than ever in the normally bugfree PNW.  
Another factor in
creating dangerous snow pack instabilities is the high wind - it has 
been far windier than normal, too. A lot of mountaineers and snowshoers 
are just staying home.
	But there will be plenty of water to drink and plump snails to eat.
	Love, Dudley of the Pregnant Rhinos





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