February 1952

YOSEMITE NATURE NOTES VOLUME XXXI • NUMBER 2 FEBRUARY, 1952

Oak Tree and Cliffs of Cathedral Rocks —Ansel Adams

Photos by Ralph Andrus Comparative photos of Dana Glacier taken from the same point during the glacier survey 1949 (above) and 1951 (below). Though fresh snow appears in the 1949 photo, the loss of glacial ice in the 2-year period is apparent, particularly on the left (south) flank of the glacier. Cover Photo: Oak Tree and Cliffs of Cathedral Rocks. By Ansel Adams from "My Camera in Yosemite Valley." Reproduction by kind permission of Virginia Adams and Houghton Mifflin Company.

THE MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF THE YOSEMITE NATURALIST DIVISION AND THE YOSEMITE NATURAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION, INC.

I Russell, Superintendent D. E. McHenry, Park Naturalist Parker, Assoc. Park Naturalist N. B. Herkenham, Asst. Park Naturalist W. W. Bryant, Junior Park Naturalist

VOL. XXXI FEBRUARY, 1952 NO. 2 THE 1951 GLACIER SURVEY

By Harry C. Parker, Associate Park Naturalist Another in the series of surveys near its two lobes. Transverse profiles of Yosemite glaciers begun 20 years files of these two ice bodies were was conducted from September thus obtained as in the 1949 survey to October 2, 1951. As a part of when this practice was initiated, the program of the American Geophysical Union, which is in turn coordinated with international studies, in conjunction with a stadia rod, work was done this year by a thereby producing much more accurate cross sections than could be man party from the National park service staff of Yosemite National Park, augmented by Seasonal Ranger Lawrence Brown on two of his days off. Not since 1937 had a tripod-mounted precision instrument been used, when it was applied The regular group comprised Associate Park Naturalist Harry C. Parker, chief of party; Assistant Park Naturalist Norman B. Herkenham, As was surmised, the unseasonably hot August and September weather had tended to negate the effects of the previous winter's snowfall which had been well above that of 1949, especially in water content. technician in charge of measurements; Junior Park Naturalist Wayne Bryant, rodman; and Administrative Assistant Ralph H. Anderson, photographer. With circumstances preventing a survey in 1950, this year's program was oriented toward continuing the projects set up in the 1949 survey, plus the visitation of two glacierets of hitherto included: Northwest Maclure and North Peak. Comparative photographs were again made of the Lyell, Maclure, Dana, and Conness Glaciers, and measurements of the Lyell Glacier were made from the previously established points of See Yosemite Nature Notes, Vol. XXIX, March 1950, pp. 27-31.

and 3 feet on the east lobe, which also approximate the annual averages over the 18-year period since 1933. However, due to the difference in methods of taking the measurements, making it necessary to weight the curves for 1949, it is not possible to give definite figures. The value of the more accurate method used this year will first become apparent when it is used on the next survey. Then we will have two sets of curves that will afford direct comparison. The most significant condition discovered was on Dana Glacier. That part of its front opposite the ice chute had several circular pits in the marginal shade ice and its overlying moraine, causing bedrock to be exposed beneath. If the ice in front of these pits melts away during the next season, we can then post survey stations on bedrock from which the real retreat or advance of the glacier's front can be measured in distance. This we have not yet been able to do satisfactorily for our glaciers because their fronts are concealed — buried for unknown horizontal distances under the moraines. It was obvious that Dana Glacier had suffered severe reduction in volume since the last previous survey. The furrows on the upper part were greatly deepened, increasing the "hummocky" appearance. There was a series of ice caves along the north flank where the ice had receded and melted vertically. One of these was examined, and its floor found to be partially made up of bedrock. The weather was better than usual, especially as regards the wind, which at times did make for some miserable "note-keeping" conditions. On the fourth day, after the party made the usual comparative photographs of the Maclure Glacier, Naturalists Herkenham and Bryant were dispatched to investigate the Northwest Maclure Glacieret, which had never been included in previous surveys. Its existence was revealed in an aerial photograph made of that region in 1944. The two men met difficult terrain crossing steep saddles, often on large, unstable granite blocks. Photographs were taken of this little-known ice body. It is reported in their notes to be "short and quite steep, having its lower end submerged in the small lake between it and its moraine... The moraine was quite shifty, steep, about 150 feet high." After returning to Tuolumne Meadows for a day of rest following the period at Lyell Base Camp, we visited Dana Glacier as described, and Ranger and Mrs. Brown volunteered to accompany us on this trip, it being his off-duty day. The Conness Glacier was examined on October 1, the ninth day of the survey, with Ranger Brown again accompanying us. This was a very blustery day and therefore quite cool. Storm clouds threatened, but the work was completed without undue interference by the elements. After the comparative photographs were taken from the established points, Messrs. Herkenham, Bryant, and Brown were assigned to try In from the cabin was the 5 days reach the glacieret perched high on needed for the Lyell-Maclure group, North Peak, hitherto unvisited on when we were packed in to Upper glacier surveys. This involved Lyell Base Camp by Ranger Herbert Ewing. Here the routine was a day's outing, usually involving a chilly traverse around the granite spur lying between the Conness and Glacier Point cirques, but they were successful in the attempt. They brought back some interesting photographs, including pictures of ice columns which filled vertical chimneys in the cirque wall above the glacieret. It is believed that this phenomenon aids in the formation of any "fluted walls" found elsewhere in the Sierra, which are now devoid of massive ice. They reported blowing for about two hours. Hot coffee, graciously dispensed by the cook at the tungsten mine headquarters on Saddlebag Lake, served to restore everyone to tiptop shape, ready for the slow drive back to Tuolumne Meadows for a late supper. So ended the last day of the 1951 glacier survey.

Final comparisons have not been made nor the final report sent to the International Committee on Glaciers, but the trip this year can already be appraised as being pre-eminently worthwhile. A base was laid for more accurate figures on the shrinkage in volume of the Lyell Glacier. The photographs, especially of Dana Glacier and the two glacierets, are very useful. The data thus obtained will be especially valuable should we now be headed into another "wet cycle" with normal or above normal snowfall during the next few winters. Some of the fundamental things we have noted about the nature of our glaciers could be revealed only by the time this party rejoined the other two members of the group. They were nearly blue with cold, for after a season like the one in 1951, storm clouds had blotted out the sun and a strong, chilling wind had been blowing with extreme melting down into the ice itself.

MRS. ELIZABETH MEYER PASSES

By Ralph H. Anderson, Administrative Assistant The passing of any old-timer is saddening to all of us, but especially so when the person has endeared herself to so many as had Mrs. Elizabeth Meyer of Big Meadow. A great many people have chatted with Mrs. Meyer on the front porch of her picturesque ranch house, flanked by great stretches of green meadowland and facing an apple orchard so attractive in spring bloom. Mrs. Meyer maintained that sparkle of enthusiasm and good Irish humor throughout her exceptionally interesting life. She died on Friday, January 25,

in the John C. Fremont Hospital in Mariposa, at the age of 85. Known to her many friends as "Granny, "" she was born Elizabeth Stuart McCauley in Liverpool, England, on July 25, 1866. An orphan at the age of 3, she was raised by two aunts near Belfast, Ireland, and lived with them until she was 18. Mrs. Meyer arrived in this country from Belfast in July 1884 to make her home with her uncle, James McCauley; his wife, the former Barbara Wenger; and their sons, Jules, Fred, and John. In an interview in July 1948, she vividly recalled her uncle, who sent her a ticket and $50 cash to make the trip to Yosemite. McCauley had built and was operating the Glacier Point Mountain House and the Four Mile Trail leading to it from Yosemite Valley. The Mountain House still accommodates tourists visiting the park. Arriving at Merced, Mrs. Meyer took the mail coach to Hornitos with John McCready, driver; then from Hornitos to Mariposa with Percy Gallison, and from Mariposa to Wawona with Tom Farnsworth. All of these names are prominent in Mariposa County history. She arrived in Wawona at 3 :00 a.m. and took the stage to Leidig 's in Yosemite Valley, thence via the Four Mile Trail by saddle horse the same day to her uncle ' s hotel at Glacier Point. Mrs. Meyer later worked for W. E. Dennison, guardian of Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove under State administration. In 1900 she was married to George Meyer, who had settled the Big Meadow ranch in 1870. There the three Meyer children were born. Hazel died in June 1905 at the age of three and was buried in the Yosemite Cemetery; George was killed in a freak accident with a horse at Merced Falls on April 1, 1939; and Horace now resides at Cathay and at Big Meadow. Her husband died in 1917. Since then she has shouldered the responsibility as head of the household and became an astute businesswoman.

Photo by Ralph Andrus Mrs. Elizabeth Meyer in March 1948 Besides her son Horace, Mrs. Meyer is survived by four grandchildren: Peggy, of Mariposa, and Betty, George, and Patsy, of Cathay. Funeral services were held at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church in Merced, at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, January 29, with burial in the family plot in Calvary Cemetery. In accordance with Mrs. Meyer's wish, park rangers from Yosemite served as pallbearers. The group consisted of Arthur G. Holmes, Samuel L. Clark, Homer W. Robinson, Ralph H. Anderson, Henry R. During, and Herbert B. Ewing.

AVALANCHE — A THRILL AND A HAZARD

By Wayne W. Bryant, Junior Park Naturalist John Muir thrilled to the sound After hearing the initial muffled and spectacle of occasional avalanches report of an avalanche, natural curiosity during his winters in Yosemite usually turns the observer to Valley in the 1870's. Even searching the cliffs for the source of today it is a rare and exciting experience the sound. If sufficiently alert he may to hear and observe snow masses be rewarded with a view of the sliding cascading down the walls snow mass. In many cases he of the valley--an experience that might fancy that he had spotted a relatively few Yosemite visitors are new waterfall rather than a snowfortunate enough to have, because slide, for there is a striking resemblance, only occasionally do the proper except that the snowslide causative conditions exist. A snow has an abrupt beginning and ending avalanche in the valley is ordinarily and a very brief duration. The ob-of minor proportions, but it is, nonetheless server seldom sees the beginning of a fascinating and unusual these small avalanches except by phenomenon to observe. Most of the sheer accident, for the snowslide is major avalanches in the Sierra Nevada well on its brief way by the time the occur in the rugged and snow-first sound reaches him and calls bound high country and are therefore his attention to it. The slides seldom unseen by human eyes. last longer than a minute. Snow slides cascade down over the cliffs, The 1952 winter season has been sometimes sliding, sometimes leaping particularly productive of snow avalanches free into the air over vertical in the Sierra due to an abundance precipices, and finally come to rest of snow. Though there is no apparent danger from in cone-like form on a wide ledge the avalanches in Yosemite Valley, or on a talus slope below. they are a real hazard in the higher Most avalanches follow regularly areas of the Sierra in relation to all-established paths in chutes or gullies year highways, buildings, and to (or couloirs). In most cases, the skiers especially. chutes have been carved entirely or On January 24 and 25, 1952, the in part by repeated avalanches sound of avalanches filled the air through the centuries. Several chutes in Yosemite Valley. One after analong Yosemite Valley 's walls are other, rumble after rumble, the snowcommonly subjected to one or more slides tumbled down its cliffs. Condiminor avalanches each winter. tions were ideal for wet-snow avaAmong them : The Yosemite Point lunches: heavy snowpack, warm couloir; the gully west of Three temperatures, and 2 days of rain. Brothers; the couloir west of El CapiUnder such conditions the snow tan; the chutes adjacent to Stanford, masses clinging to the valley walls Crocker, and Dewey Points; the developed a wet, slickened underchutes between Taft Point and Cathesurface, allowing gravity finally to dral Rocks; and a gully on the east overcome the adhesion between side of Glacier Point. snow and steep, smooth granite. Perhaps the largest avalanches Then down came the cascades of near Yosemite Valley occur on the snow. broad, steep slopes of the face of

Photo by Ralph Andrus A typical avalanche path is the Yosemite Point couloir, seen as the long shadowed recess, near the right edge of this photo of Upper Yosemite Fall. Clouds Rest, where they often descend summit there moved down an avalanche 3 or 4 thousand feet in altitude gathering volume and swiftness as it rushed to the brink, and then, leaping out two and a mile in distance before coming three hundred feet into space, fell, slowly to rest near the bottom of Tenaya filtering down through the lighted air, like a Canyon. When conditions were just silver cloud until it floated into the shadow of the thousand feet cliff and sank to the ground as a faint right in early spring, often several mist. Next the Cathedral snow poured from its lighted summit in resounding avalanches; Clouds Rest in a single day. Since the Three Brothers shot off their loads, and the disappearance of the ice age afar from the east a deep roar reached us; glaciers, according to the late the whole snow-cover thundered down the flank of Clouds Rest... Sleet and snow and Francois Matthes, snow avalanches rain fell fast, and the boom of falling trees have been the principal agency in and crashing avalanches followed one eroding and shaping the massive other in an almost uninterrupted roar. granite face of Clouds Rest, forming James Hutchings, one of Yosemite's the shallow funnels and undulations first residents, was impressed with that we see on its surface today. winter and its phenomena in the. The early Sierra surveyor, Clarence King, described a series of avalanches from the walls of Yosemite Valley in November 1864: For half an hour nature seemed in entire repose; not a breath of wind stirred the white snow-laden shafts of the trees; not a sound of animate creature, or the most distant reverberation of waterfall reached us; no film of vapor moved across the tranquil sapphire sky; absolute quiet reigned until a loud roar proceeding from El Capitan turned our eyes in that direction. From the round, dome-like cap of its summit there moved down an avalanche, gathering volume and swiftness as it rushed to the brink, and then, leaping out two and a mile in distance before coming to rest near the bottom of Tenaya Canyon. When conditions were just right in early spring, often several avalanches have been seen on Clouds Rest in a single day. Since the disappearance of the ice age glaciers, according to the late Francois Matthes, snow avalanches have been the principal agency in eroding and shaping the massive granite face of Clouds Rest, forming the shallow funnels and undulations that we see on its surface today. Speechless with admiration, even while we were gazing upon it, a new revelation dawned upon us, for everywhere around we heard rushing, rattling, hissing, booming avalanches come shooting from the mountain-tops, above precipitous hollows, and creating fresh sources of attraction; with new combinations of impressions, that must be alike diverting and satisfying to both artistic and poetic feeling. Then, before these sounds can have been repeated in echoes, and hurled from wall to wall, or from crag to peak, another avalanche makes the leap; and, like its predecessor 1. King, Clarence.Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada, pp. 179, 181.

comes the birth of a new waterfall, in first gives way on the upper slopes of their strange and unheard-of place.2 basins, a dull rushing, rumbling sound is heard which rapidly increases and seems to John Muir found a fascination in draw nearer with appalling intensity of tone. watching valley avalanches and Presently the white flood comes bounding into sight over bosses and sheer places, leapmakes many interesting references ing from bench to bench, spreading and narrowing in his works, a few of which and throwing off clouds of whirling are quoted here: dust like the spray of foaming cataracts.6 Storm succeeds storm, heaping snow on John Muir held a distinction that snow. From the canyon-walls and long white can be claimed by few—a successful ridges of the mountains avalanches descend ride on an avalanche! The exhilaration gloriously, laying bare the very roots of mountains of such rapid descent must rival and domes.3 the thrill of schussing down a steep An imposing snow avalanche fell from the ski run. But let John Muir describe narrow gorge east of Yosemite Fall, lasting it to you. more than a minute. It was at first a homogeneous roaring mass of dazzling brightness, but most of the back-streaming, enveloping In all my mountaineering I have enjoyed snow-dust disappeared and the body of the only one avalanche ride, and the start was so avalanche was seen as distinct in structure sudden and the end came so soon I had but and motion as a waterfall, thinning until the little time to think of the danger that attends dry rock showed through, then leisurely this sort of travel, though at such times one ceasing.4 thinks fast. One fine Yosemite morning after a heavy snowfall, being eager to see as many As the storm progresses, the thickening avalanches as possible and wide views of the floes darken the air, and soon the rush and forest and summit peaks in their new white muffled boom of avalanches are heard, but robes before the sunshine had time to change we try in vain to catch a glimpse of them them, I set out early to climb by a side until rifts occur in the clouds and the storm canon to the top of a commanding ridge a ceases. Then, standing in the middle of the little over three thousand feet above the valley, we may witness the descent of half a Valley. On account of the looseness of the dozen or more within the space of a few minutes snow that blocked the canon I knew the climb or hours, according to the abundance would require a long time, some three or four and condition of the snow.5 hours as I estimated; but it proved far more difficult than I had anticipated. Most of the After snow-storms come avalanches, varying way I sank waist deep, almost out of sight greatly in form, size, behavior and in the in some places. After spending the whole day songs they sing; some on the smooth slopes to within half an hour or so of sundown, I of the mountains are short and broad; others was still several hundred feet below the long and river-like in the side canons of summit. Then my hopes were reduced to getting Yosemite and in the main canons, flowing up in time to see the sunset. But I was not in regular channels and booming like water-to get summit views of any sort that day, for falls, while countless smaller ones fall every-deep trampling near the canon head, where where from laden trees and rocks and lofty the snow was strained, started an avalanche, canon walls. Most delightful it is to stand in and I was swished down to the foot of the the middle of Yosemite on still clear mornings canon as if by enchantment. The wallowing after snow-storms and watch the throng of ascent had taken nearly all day, the descent avalanches as they come down, rejoicing, to only about a minute. When the avalanche their places, whispering, thrilling like birds, started I threw myself on my back and or booming and roaring like thunder.... spread my arms to try to keep from sinking. Hundreds of broad cloud-shaped masses may Fortunately, though the grade of the canon also be seen, leaping over the brows of the is very steep, it is not interrupted by precipices cliffs from great heights, descending at first large enough to cause outbounding or with regular avalanche speed until, worn free plunging. On no part of the rush was I into dust by friction, they float in front of buried. I was only moderately imbedded on the precipices like irised clouds. Those which the surface or at times a little below it, and descend from the brow of El Capitan are par-covered with a veil of back-streaming dust ticularly fine; but most of the great Yosemite particles; and as the whole mass beneath avalanches flow in regular channels like and about me joined in the flight there was cascades and waterfalls. When the snow no friction, though I was tossed here and 2. Hutchings, James M. In the Heart of the Sierras, pp. 494-5. 3. Muir, John, edited by Linnie Marsh Wolfe. John of the Mountains, p. 87. 4. Ibid., p. 119. 5. Ibid., p. 124. 6. Muir, John. The Yosemite, pp. 62-3.

there and lurched from side to side. When the evidence that such avalanches avalanche slowed and came to rest I found myself on top of the crumpled pile without a occur but once in a century or longer, bruise or scar. This flight in what might as determined by counting the rings be called a milky way of snow-stars was of the shattered trees. the most spiritual and exhilarating of all the modes of motion I have ever experienced. Snow avalanches may be classified Elijah's flight in a chariot of fire could hardly also by snow condition, into: have been more gloriously exciting.7 (1) Dry-snow avalanches, (2) wet. An avalanche is defined as the snow avalanches, (3) wind-slab avasudden falling and sliding of a large lanches, and (4) ice avalanches. Dry mass of snow, ice, earth, or rock in snow avalanches are after-storm swift motion down a mountainside avalanches in which the bond between or over a precipice. The usual con-notation of the word refers to the by evaporation of the crystal variety made up of snow, but more branches, thus permitting the snow accurate terminology would be to flow. Wet-snow avalanches may "snow avalanche" as distinguished occur when new snow becomes from "rock avalanche." Rock ava-very sticky or when old snow lanches have played a major role comes heavily water-soaked from in the recent geologic history of rain or melting. The wet old-snow Yosemite Valley, but here we are avalanches usually tend to slide in concerned with snow avalanches— the same tracks each year. A wet those caused by the instability of new-snow avalanche may slide, or snow masses. roll into huge balls as it descends Snow avalanches may be classified slope. Wind-slab avalanches consist by snow condition and by time of blocks of wind crusted snow which, and frequency of occurrence. As to become detached from looser underthe latter, John Muir mentions three lying snow and roll down steep types:8 (1) After-storm avalanches, slopes. Ice avalanches do not occur (2) annual avalanches, and (3) cen- in the Sierra Nevada, but in precipitury avalanches. The after-storm itous regions of heavy glaciation. avalanches are frequent in all of the The speed of avalanches is dedeep, steep-walled canyons of the pendent upon the volume and type Sierra. The annual type is developed of snow and the smoothness and on mountain slopes from 9,000 to slope of the underlying surface. Wet 10,000 feet at an angle too gentle to snow is the slowest and dry powder shed dry winter snow, but spring snow the fastest. A typical wet snow thaws loosen and smooth out the avalanche on a 45° slope was estibottom layers of the accumulated mated at 17 miles per hour, while a snow mass until it slides. The ava- great powder-snow avalanche on a lanches on the face of Clouds Rest 44° slope in the Alps was estimated are of this variety. Century ava- at 217 miles per hour. Slopes steeper lanches occur on mountains from than 22° are likely to be subjected to 10,000 to 12,000 feet, where the snow avalanches, but slopes even as litmay accumulate from year to year tle as 15° have produced wet snow over a period long enough for trees avalanches. to grow below the snow mass. When One of the earliest written records this avalanche breaks loose it de-concerning the destructive power of stroys the trees as it moves. There is avalanches was written by Silius 7. Ibid., pp. 65-7. 8. Ibid., pp. 63-5.

Roman epic poet, A.D. 1st century) snow structure was developed in the concerning Hannibal's crossing of region of the Alps. With the advent Alps (3rd century B.C.): of skiing popularity in the United Here, where the path is broken by the States, the avalanche hazard has yawning slope of the hill, which the cold become a real problem to contend frozen solidly, he [Hannibal] pierces with with in our country. The U.S. Forest iron the ice which resists: the detached Service in the Wasatch Mountains hurls men into the chasm, and falling violence from the high peak buries the of Utah, and Meteorologist J. E. caldrons alive.9 Church in the Sierra Nevada, have For many centuries, snow ava-pioneered the study of snow struclanches have been a great hazard to ture and avalanches in the western humans and their habitations in the United States, and through their re- Alps of central Europe. It is not sur-search are making mountain slopes prising, then, that the science of safer for skiers. Thorington, J. Monroe. "Alpine Dangers in the Sixteenth Century," Sierra Bulletin Vol. 17, p. 40. Photo courtesy of Yosemite Park and Curry Company

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