Dodge's Drop, Annotated Version

Yesterday when MadDog and I bushwacked Hillman's Highway we had a chance to look at Dodge's Drop from Hermit Lake and from above. It was hard to recognize features I've only studied in winter. As g-$$$ said "it's amazing what 200' of snow will do" (or something like that).

The attached annotated image is here for the record of the avalanche incident. Clicking on it will allow a zoomed in view but it's pretty high res so no sure how easy it will be to read.

A few notes (these were included in an original email to hiking partners when the image was first sent out):

note the 'shark fin' at the top. maddog and i had lunch there after our Hillman's Bushwack on 7/25/09. it was the destination for me and tmail during our ascent. i also indicate on the photo the rock that had the white quartz on top that looked kind of like ice. it formed part of the choke-point just before the "V" where the top opens up into a bowl of sorts.

the 'shark fin was our destination when things broke. i was within 20ft of it (roughly the top of the green line on the drawing). tmail was to my right - almost the same elevation. I shot downhill, following the green ascent route and under tmail, who was then thrown down behind me.

the image is detailed enough that you can zoom in to the 'cliff' that we launched over. it's labeled on the pic. the brook that runs through the middle of it creates an ice fall over the winter, building it up to a roughly 6-8ft cliff. while that's not much, it amounts to a big launch when the slope below it is at 30°.

during the descent i thought that we had launched into the next ravine over to climber's right, into the trees/rocks where the word "LANDING" is on my annotation.