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Show three of the major ski areas in the vicinity. At nightfall, the winds eased some, but still blew well above critical " snow transportation" limits. ACCIDENT SUMMARY State Highway 82 follows the Lake Creek drainage westward, traversing around the northern edge of Twin Lakes Reservoir. Toward the upper end of the reservoir and at the foot of 12,676 Perry Mountain, the small town of Twin Lakes is scattered along the road on private ground for over a half mile. Five to seven families usually spend the winter there, but most of the cabins are occupied only during the summer. After passing Twin Lakes, the road enters a narrow canyon and crosses over Independence Pass on its way to Aspen, Colorado. Moderate to dense conifer timber covers the hillside in back of most of the houses. These trees vary in age from 50 to 160 years, In back of five of the dwellings the hillside was covered with 60 to 70 year old aspen - a particularly pretty location when the leaves were gold in the fall. Next to this aspen slope was the mouth of Gordon Gulch whose headwaters lie far up the slopes of Perry Mountain. Around 0400 hours on 21 January W. A. arose to let his dog out. A few minutes later he let the dog back in, and returned to bed. In the house with W. A. was his wife, B. A., and their two sons, By. A. and M. A. Several feet west of their house was the residence of G. S., his wife M. S., their son S. S., and daughters L. S. and V. S. At about 0830, N. L., another resident of Twin Lakes, got out of bed. He lived two houses west of the G. S. house. He looked out the window to see if the two- day storm was still in progress. As he looked eastward, he saw a white expanse over 700 feet wide. Intermingled with the snow were odd shapes and colors. Suddenly N. L. realized he was looking at the remains of what had been seven buildings and a house trailer. Now only splinters of wood, pieces of walls, and parts of cars remained - all mixed among tons of snow. There was no sign of any of the nine residents who had lived there the night before. At a few moments before 0530 on Sunday, 21 January, a very large climax avalanche had released in Gordon Gulch, near the summit of Perry Mountain. Starting near the 12,000 foot level, the avalanche had dropped 2,800 vertical feet along a path 9,000 feet in length to the valley floor below. The main avalanche undercut two other slides, which added a considerable volume of snow. Toward the bottom of the slide path there is a glacial moraine ( or small ridge) 100 feet high, which lies at an angle of 40° to 60° to the main axis of Gordon Gulch. This moraine forms a natural barrier, and all of the avalanches for the past 70 years had been stopped by this ridge. However, on this tragic Sunday, the volume and velocity of the snow was so great that it flowed up and over the ridge with ease, leaving very little snow deposited on either the upper or lower sides of the barrier. From the top of the moraine the snow dropped down the aspen- covered slope, disintegrating everything in its path, and continued out on the flat valley floor for 1200 feet. 73 |
