AVALANCHE SWATH, South Wallowas [ click photo for next . . . ]
AVALANCHE SWATH, South Wallowas [ click photo for next . . . ]
FIELD COMMENTARY [below] on the above AVALANCHE SWATH
photograph [above]... . . . .
I CALL THIS AVALANCHE SWATH "82//14 East & 82//14 West"; it's about 300 meters wide, happened c. 1982, and took down the entire scattered tree Whitebark Pine/Subalpine Fir forest over an altitude difference of c. 500 meters. It is South/Southwest facing. 82//14 refers to the 2014, February the 9th at 12:00 pm avalanche tragedy that took two lives, and left two skiers severely injured and in needs of an extremely risky rescue operation. The line they descended began 300 meters above where this photograph was made, and ended approximately here. I wasn't there at the time, so I don't want to second guess or speculate unnecessarily, but I do think it is very unlikely that the party was aware of the avalanche history of this slope. With some emphasis, I'd like to say that in my view this c. 1982 avalanche was a Climate Change event. Why? Because the slope was well-anchored with trees. And exposition. A south-facing slope would have normally consolidated and "set-up" well with repeated freeze-thaw cycles. And, most importantly, unlike the windslab new-snow avalanche of 2014, this slide would have happen around the end of April, and taken down the entire winter's snowpack like a razor-sharp cleaver. This to me means a sudden intense warming event, with water running underneath the snowpack, etc.
On the road in the Pacific Northwest . . .
CONCENTRATION is always based on force;
FOCUS is based not on force, but awareness.
AWARENESS of awareness--the key of
learning to learn.
(37) In Art as well as Nature, there is a necessary
complementarity between the conservative tradition
which embodies and safeguards the knowledge of
the past and the revolutionary insight which reveals
the new. One is mechanical in a subtle way, the other
is creative. The balance between the two is crucial.
Too much stubborn repetition and the source of
fresh meaning goes dry. Too much of the new and
we lose all the skill needed to make the new manifest.
A creative tradition is then at once both constant and
changing, like the solid bed of rock which allows
the river to flow wild and free.
from 100 MINIATURES . . .| If you're interested in philosophy and the general background
to the present crisis of perception, culture and consciousness,
please preview my little book, THEATER OF THE NEW. |
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All Photographs & texts by Cliff Crego © 1999-2014 picture-poems.com
(created: X.11.2008)
