Lundy Canyon: Massive Avalanche Damage from Winter of 2022/2023 — Trees Sheared-Off Like Toothpicks
Related: Eastern Sierra, Expose Somewhat To Right, Expose To The Right, Lundy Canyon area, peak bagging, weather events
I’m finally in the mountains photographing with the Nikon Z8 system and lenses.
And glad to have the strength to do it including hiking—my Vitamin C regimen showed an anecdotal and coincidental spike in energy, reduced sleep needs, etc starting day #2. Striking. I was able to hike a few miles to 8400' over heavily damaged trails and while I was feeling the extra 25 pounds (plus pack!), I was able to do it. With few exceptions, I have not been able to say that for most of the past 3 years. Two days in a row in fact.
Outdoor shooting leaves little time for computer work what with 5:30 AM sunrises (mostly skipping those*) and 9:30 PM sunsets. Please expect only sporadic posts and review coverage until I am home with the hours to go through it. Just organizing yesterday’s shoot took 2 hours.
* When younger, I could burn the candle at both ends, but both a dawn and dusk shoot in June around the long days of summer solstice are not something I can handled more than occassionally.
Massive damage from avalanches in Lundy Canyon
I expect what is seen here will be the case everywhere in the Eastern Sierra. Eastern Sierra resident Claude Fiddler confirms that similar damage is seen everywhere.
I counted 4 major avalanche zones in Lundy Canyon.
This was truly a winter for the record books for centuries, as the evidence proves at a glance hiking up the canyon. Stately conifers 200-300 years old ripped out like toothpicks in places prove that nothing this violent occurred for centuries. At least not in Lundy Canyon.
Never in my 30 years of visiting the Eastern Sierra have I witnessed such destruction, not even the massive rainfall-precipitated June 2018 rockslides here in this same canyon,though that does come pretty close.
In places, massive trees were just wiped out, any tree of size just hammered out of the ground, with a massive pile of heaped-up tree trunks far downslope. Junipers, pines, aspens, etc... with some of those conifers hundreds of years old.
Below, a human figure shows just how deep the snow had to be to shear-off all the trees—somewhere between 12-15 feet of hard-packed base upon which the avalanching snow tore downhill.
Nikon Z8 + Nikon NIKKOR Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S @ 14mm
ENV: Lundy canyon, altitude 8050 ft / 2454 m, 60°F / 15°C
RAW: LACA corrected, distortion corrected, vignetting corrected, +40 Shadows, +10 Whites, +10 Clarity, USM {8,50,0}, diffraction mitigating sharpening
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The image below shows how aspen trees packed 12-15 feet deep in snow were sheared off about 12-15 feet (4-5 meters) above grade.
Nikon Z8 + Nikon NIKKOR Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S @ 14mm
ENV: Lundy Canyon, altitude 8050 ft / 2454 m, 60°F / 15°C
RAW: LACA corrected, vignetting corrected, push 0.66 stops, +10 Whites, +10 Clarity, diffraction mitigating sharpening
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Below, these were standing trees (dead ones), ripped away along with the living.
Nikon Z8 + Nikon NIKKOR Z 17-28mm f/2.8 @ 23mm equiv (23.5mm) + polarizer Breakthrough Photography X4
ENV: Lundy Canyon, altitude 8400 ft / 2560 m, 55°F / 12°C
RAW: LACA corrected, distortion corrected, vignetting corrected, +10 Whites, +10 Clarity, diffraction mitigating sharpening
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This huge pile contains hundreds of full-size trees in an icy tomb, covered over all by soil and broken branches.
Nikon Z8 + Nikon NIKKOR Z 17-28mm f/2.8 @ 19mm equiv (19.5mm) + polarizer Breakthrough Photography X4
ENV: Lundy Canyon, altitude 8400 ft / 2560 m, 55°F / 12°C
RAW: LACA corrected, distortion corrected, vignetting corrected, push 0.8 stops, +10 Whites, +10 Clarity
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Snow level on north-facing slopes at 8000 feet remains deep/thick. Most years, very little snow would be seen this low as seen here covering the two alluvial fans.
Nikon Z8 + Nikon NIKKOR Z 50mm f/1.2 S
ENV: Lundy Canyon, altitude 8000 ft / 2438 m, 40°F / 4°C
RAW: Enhance Details, LACA corrected, distortion corrected, vignetting corrected, push 0.66 stops, +10 Whites, +10 Clarity
ice on smaller pools
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