The Glacial Tornado's of the Twenty Mile River
I have been putting off writing this story due to the lack of information I had in trying to explain the event. I have not ever been exposed to the kind of wind problem we had.
Most folks don't seem to get a grip on the situation we faced.Everyone I've talked to get funny looks on there faces and try to understand, but they have never heard of such a thing.
I have camped in high mountain passes over the last 40 years. I have had to get up several times to repair broken tent poles, broken rope "tie downs", and about every thing else on a tent that can break.
These high winds can rip up about anything out there.It takes a very good tent to withstand some of the harsh winds. High winds are the norm and I always make great preparation to set up our camp with the wind direction in mind.I use trees, alders, rocks, logs and anything else to block the winds. I am certainly no rooky when it comes to setting up a safe camp
Actually Lin and I camp out for two months a year.
This year we both got our moose in a couple of days, and decided to join my two nephews, Frank and Ernest Hunt, on their moose hunt in the Twenty Mile River area.It was a once in a life time draw and it was in the most scenic area in Alaska.
The Twenty Mile is a valley just north of Portage Glacier. It is an area known for very high winds. With that in mind, we set up camp on a gravel bar next to a row of trees.
The first couple of days brought rain in buckets. The river begin to come up the bank and we were soon surrounded by rushing water on our little island.Luckily I had my SAT phone and was able to call our boat friends to move us down river.
We set up camp about 3 miles down river on a bend. We had nice high ground and were able to set the tent up in an alder thicket.I love alder thickets! It provides many great places to tie to the bases of the bushes.We took liberty of all of the bushes.
I knew a storm was coming up the Prince William Sound and high winds were coming.Prince William Sound dumps wind over Portage Pass and down over the frozen glaciers at speeds of nearly 100 MPH regularly. It wasn't something I did not expect.I even tied a rope over the top of the tent to hold it down in case of one of those gusts.
What I didn't know was the warm air would come over the passes and become "down-sloping" winds. The warm air would hit the frozen glaciers and ice covered river causing "glacial tornado's".
Three mountain passes entered the Twenty Mile valley from the south at 90 degrees.I had noticed that the normal wind currents caused little twisters in the low fog clouds almost every day. It never occurred to me that those same little twisters could become raging glacial tornado's with winds well over 100 MPH.
As I had already stated, these were not the run-of-the-mill gust of high winds.
The first tornado hit the tent at 12:30 AM on Sept 11.The wind outside had only been barely blowing, if at all.We could hear the deafening roar for 45 seconds.
We have never been in a tornado, but we all knew what the roar was about.
The first blast hit the tent and we thought it would explode. The tent blew up like a big balloon, and almost went up. The blast lasted for what seemed like two minutes and was gone. Everything outside was dead calm.We jumped up, got dressed and went outside to re-tie the broken ropes.
We took shovels and dumped a ton of gravel on the tent flaps around the outside.We tied two more ropes over the top, and hung our 5 gallon water jugs on the corners of the tent.Frank grabbed the chain saw and cut three logs ten feet long. He notched the ends and we braced the walls inside the tent. I tied the logs to the upper side rails and buried the butt of the logs in the ground.We were lucky to have most of the bracing done before the next tornado hit.
I was standing outside when it hit. I grabbed the top corner of the tent and tried to hold it down until the roar had passed. I was scared it would lift me up too!
The one strange "other" thing was the warmth of the air. It should have been cold, but it was warm instead. During several of the blasts we were also slammed by hail and rain.When each tornado hit, the hail and rain also hit. Then as quickly as it started it would be dead still and quiet. It was just like someone flipped the switch off.
We were forced to hang on the logs to hold the tent down until 5:00 in the morning.
I don't know how many tornadoes actually hit us. I think it was between 15 and 20.The first 5 were much the worse.
We survived because we done everything right. I had everyone dressed warm and in rain gear in case we lost the tent. I also had a 10X12 tarp tied to a log outside in case we had to spend the night out in the rain.I told everyone to drop to the ground if the tent did explode. I know some or all of us could have been injured very badly if we lost it.
The next morning we found all of our nice awnings shredded and everything else blown across the gravel bar.I had a ground blind set up with a portapoddy. That critter had to be hunted down and dragged back to camp.
The heavy tie-down loops on the tent had all been ripped out.
Not much actually scares me. Not big bears or much of anything else, but this night I was scared. Lin, with her bad back, hung in there and done her job in spite of the pain. She did not come apart as some would have done.
The next morning the stress shown very vividly on every ones face. We were lucky to be alive and we all knew it.
I guess there were many strange things that took place. One of them was a tent 3 miles down river. It had not seen any wind.
I called the boat crew and they came in and helped us gather up our destroyed camp.
I heard from a different camp of moose hunters over on the Placer River, which was just on the south side of Portage Valley.They were not so lucky. They lost their tent and spent the night rolled up in a wet tarp.They were hypo-thermic but did make it.
I know the pilots don't fly near these glaciers for a good reason. I have an idea that the Weather folks don't have near all of the answers about some of those glacial wind currents.
The fact is hurricanes spin, low and high pressure fronts spin, tornado's spin. Most high winds are the result of air masses spinning. Those areas where warm air contacts the glacial ice fields also causes some very terrible, explosive tornado's. They may not be large in size, but they are explosive and very dangerous.
Other than that we had a very nice camping trip.Just having fun.
Most folks don't seem to get a grip on the situation we faced.Everyone I've talked to get funny looks on there faces and try to understand, but they have never heard of such a thing.
I have camped in high mountain passes over the last 40 years. I have had to get up several times to repair broken tent poles, broken rope "tie downs", and about every thing else on a tent that can break.
These high winds can rip up about anything out there.It takes a very good tent to withstand some of the harsh winds. High winds are the norm and I always make great preparation to set up our camp with the wind direction in mind.I use trees, alders, rocks, logs and anything else to block the winds. I am certainly no rooky when it comes to setting up a safe camp
Actually Lin and I camp out for two months a year.
This year we both got our moose in a couple of days, and decided to join my two nephews, Frank and Ernest Hunt, on their moose hunt in the Twenty Mile River area.It was a once in a life time draw and it was in the most scenic area in Alaska.
The Twenty Mile is a valley just north of Portage Glacier. It is an area known for very high winds. With that in mind, we set up camp on a gravel bar next to a row of trees.
The first couple of days brought rain in buckets. The river begin to come up the bank and we were soon surrounded by rushing water on our little island.Luckily I had my SAT phone and was able to call our boat friends to move us down river.
We set up camp about 3 miles down river on a bend. We had nice high ground and were able to set the tent up in an alder thicket.I love alder thickets! It provides many great places to tie to the bases of the bushes.We took liberty of all of the bushes.
I knew a storm was coming up the Prince William Sound and high winds were coming.Prince William Sound dumps wind over Portage Pass and down over the frozen glaciers at speeds of nearly 100 MPH regularly. It wasn't something I did not expect.I even tied a rope over the top of the tent to hold it down in case of one of those gusts.
What I didn't know was the warm air would come over the passes and become "down-sloping" winds. The warm air would hit the frozen glaciers and ice covered river causing "glacial tornado's".
Three mountain passes entered the Twenty Mile valley from the south at 90 degrees.I had noticed that the normal wind currents caused little twisters in the low fog clouds almost every day. It never occurred to me that those same little twisters could become raging glacial tornado's with winds well over 100 MPH.
As I had already stated, these were not the run-of-the-mill gust of high winds.
The first tornado hit the tent at 12:30 AM on Sept 11.The wind outside had only been barely blowing, if at all.We could hear the deafening roar for 45 seconds.
We have never been in a tornado, but we all knew what the roar was about.
The first blast hit the tent and we thought it would explode. The tent blew up like a big balloon, and almost went up. The blast lasted for what seemed like two minutes and was gone. Everything outside was dead calm.We jumped up, got dressed and went outside to re-tie the broken ropes.
We took shovels and dumped a ton of gravel on the tent flaps around the outside.We tied two more ropes over the top, and hung our 5 gallon water jugs on the corners of the tent.Frank grabbed the chain saw and cut three logs ten feet long. He notched the ends and we braced the walls inside the tent. I tied the logs to the upper side rails and buried the butt of the logs in the ground.We were lucky to have most of the bracing done before the next tornado hit.
I was standing outside when it hit. I grabbed the top corner of the tent and tried to hold it down until the roar had passed. I was scared it would lift me up too!
The one strange "other" thing was the warmth of the air. It should have been cold, but it was warm instead. During several of the blasts we were also slammed by hail and rain.When each tornado hit, the hail and rain also hit. Then as quickly as it started it would be dead still and quiet. It was just like someone flipped the switch off.
We were forced to hang on the logs to hold the tent down until 5:00 in the morning.
I don't know how many tornadoes actually hit us. I think it was between 15 and 20.The first 5 were much the worse.
We survived because we done everything right. I had everyone dressed warm and in rain gear in case we lost the tent. I also had a 10X12 tarp tied to a log outside in case we had to spend the night out in the rain.I told everyone to drop to the ground if the tent did explode. I know some or all of us could have been injured very badly if we lost it.
The next morning we found all of our nice awnings shredded and everything else blown across the gravel bar.I had a ground blind set up with a portapoddy. That critter had to be hunted down and dragged back to camp.
The heavy tie-down loops on the tent had all been ripped out.
Not much actually scares me. Not big bears or much of anything else, but this night I was scared. Lin, with her bad back, hung in there and done her job in spite of the pain. She did not come apart as some would have done.
The next morning the stress shown very vividly on every ones face. We were lucky to be alive and we all knew it.
I guess there were many strange things that took place. One of them was a tent 3 miles down river. It had not seen any wind.
I called the boat crew and they came in and helped us gather up our destroyed camp.
I heard from a different camp of moose hunters over on the Placer River, which was just on the south side of Portage Valley.They were not so lucky. They lost their tent and spent the night rolled up in a wet tarp.They were hypo-thermic but did make it.
I know the pilots don't fly near these glaciers for a good reason. I have an idea that the Weather folks don't have near all of the answers about some of those glacial wind currents.
The fact is hurricanes spin, low and high pressure fronts spin, tornado's spin. Most high winds are the result of air masses spinning. Those areas where warm air contacts the glacial ice fields also causes some very terrible, explosive tornado's. They may not be large in size, but they are explosive and very dangerous.
Other than that we had a very nice camping trip.Just having fun.
posted by Bubba at 9:17 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home