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MASSIVE Landslide

Posted by jaimito (2008-03-02)
    Don, Ardith and I met up today to check out the landslide Chubby FM had found east of Table Mountain, up close and personal. Unbelievable sight� you can't even begin to imagine what this must of sounded like. Don is going to follow up with the USGS and see what kind of information they have on this huge slide. With this slide, there seems to have been 3 new Falls created that are all feed from springs. The upper 3 slides drop atleast 100 feet or more and converge on the second shelf created from the slide, a second drop occurs here and drops another 100 feet or so where then it slides down another drop about 50 feet or more.

The overall destruction was incredible to see� Here are some pictures from the day.

There's Don after scaling the twisted wood pile





















I walked up to this tree after this shot and the trunk was probably as tall as me width wise, 6ft.
and the root system was at least double that�







This was only about a quarter of the way up looking back down where we started, and only the left side of the slide











if you look hard you can see Don to the left of the pine tree by the big boulder. Gives a good sense of the size of things.




This is a shot mid way up looking at the right side of the slide.




Beautiful scenery despite the destruction�




Is that a Mountain Goat? ooohh it's Don Nelsen�





Here's another shot of that purple mountain goat I kept seeing� Man he moves fast.

I must point out to anyone who dares to venture here to check this out, my advice is stay to either side of the slide area, this is VERY unstable and my guess is there will be another slide very soon. You don't want to be caught in the middle if it decides to go again.





Here is shot showing the 3 new upper falls. Upper Greenleaf Falls would be top left of this photo.





This is a good parting shot, a twisted bundle of trees in the middle of the debris field. An island unto itself.





Gorge Geology in action� thanks again guys, and thanks Chubby FM for spotting this great find.

Cheers / Jamie


Re: MASSIVE Landslide

Posted by Grannyhiker (2008-03-02)
This is absolutely fantastic--living geology! Yet it is miniscule compared what happened when Table Mountain gave way and created the "Bridge of the Gods" legend.

I was told some years back that the whole debris field from the Table Mountain landslide (between Table and Wind Mountains) is still moving, and what you found is proof!

I'm surprised the media didn't find out about this--obviously it's a "scoop" for PortlandHikers.org!!! I'll be really interested in what you find out from the USGS!

Re: MASSIVE Landslide

Posted by fettster (2008-03-03)
Crazy stuff!  Makes you wonder how fast the event was or if we are actually looking at the results of a series of slides that everyone missed.  Does anyone know if there were any trails through there before?  It's sobering to think of something like that washing down on you.

Re: MASSIVE Landslide

Posted by greglief (2008-03-03)

WOW!!!! Thanks for the trip report and photos. Kudos to all of you for braving this!

Re: MASSIVE Landslide

Posted by chameleon (2008-03-04)

Jamie, thanks for the great pics!  In my opinion, this is THE most dangerous area in the gorge.  Last summer when I hiked up to the upper falls on Greenleaf I was astounded by how 'active,' even in August the mudflows looked!  I mean there was still moisture in them, and the strata of the entire area just made me wonder why it hadn't slid by now.  It had a very 'house of cards' feel on a giant scale.  Just mark my words on that upper falls - I bet it won't be here that much longer.

 

'

Re: MASSIVE Landslide

Posted by thomasz (2008-06-09)
Nice pic. but it no more trees.

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