Hiker Chris Evenstar LeDoux reached Canada recently and sent in this report of significant landslides across the trail. We’ve also heard reports of other landslides in Section L that may have been caused by an August 11th heavy rain event. Highway 20 west of Rainy Pass is closed due to a landslide and there is a report of a slide 4.5 miles south of Hart’s Pass on Tatie Peak. Until we figure out how to fix them, please be aware of the situation. If you’d like to help repair this, we’d love for you to get involved.
Chris writes,
“There are 6 or 7 washouts in between Rock Pass (mile 2646.8) & Woody Pass (mile 2649.4).
I went through this section on August 12, as a northbounder. It took me about an hour and a half to negotiate the half mile or so.
Two washouts are missing about 10-12′ of trail – there are now ~12-15′ deep crevasses in the place of the trail. In the crevasses are massive amounts of loose dirt/scree/etc, and it’s very unstable. The others are smaller, anywhere from 3′ or 4′ across up to maybe 10′. None of them are small enough to just hop over – they require scrambling down one side and back up the other…even if they were hoppable, the sides of most of the crevasses are crumbly, so what works for one person might not work for the people who come after.
I decided to descend down the talus to try to avoid the worst of the crevasses, and watched as two backpackers (one’s name was Laura) negotiated the crevasses above me, coming from the north. The two dipped down into one and after a while, one figure popped up on the trail. The other came up after a much longer while further down the crevasse – when I got closer, he said that his backpack had tumbled down the slope. At one point, I started heading up, toward Laura, since it looked like she was on the trail, and she hollered down that I should stay lower on the slope – she also descended once her partner had climbed out of the crevasse where he lost his pack.
Coming down from Rock Pass, I couldn’t see anything terribly wrong with the trail – on the switchbacks, there were a few places where some gravel had washed down and puddled onto the trail. It wasn’t until I was right up on the first one that I realized they weren’t out of their minds.”
Inside one of the deeper crevasses, looking uphill. I’m not sure exactly where the actual trail tread is from where I was standing.
Standing on the trail tread, looking at where the next section of tread picks up. There’s about 12′ between me and the trail – about 10′ deep. I descended ~100 yds to find a safer place to cross.
Similar shot, different crevasse.
I wish I had put my pole against the wall of the crevasse for perspective. Standing on the “floor”, I could not see out over the edge.
View from Woody Pass towards Rock Pass. You can see the switchbacks coming down Rock Pass, and then, following the trail across, you can see dark lines streaking down the mountain, over the trail – those, obviously, are the washouts. I don’t think you can see all of them.
The area in question.