Swanson, Fred; Tepley, Alan. 2008. Observations of evidence of a snow avalanche on Lookout Mountain, Andrews Forest, 2008. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University; internal unpublished report, 6 p.
The Sitka-alder (Alnus viridis subsp sinuate) chutes on the north and east faces of Lookout Mountain have been suspected of being sites of snow avalanches. They have been observed since the early 1970s, but exhibited no evidence of snow avalanching until Fred Bierlmaier noted toppled trees and bare soil in one chute in the summer of 2008. On August 1, 2008, Fred Swanson and Alan Tepley hiked out the Lookout Mountain trail in the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest and then eastward down the long, Sitka-alder track in the N1/2 of the S1/2 of Sec 32, T15S, R6E, and reached upper Lookout Creek in clearcut unit L704. The track extends from an elevation of ca. 1500 m down to 1070 m elevation with a slope of ca. 50% in its upper part, based on the June 2004 Andrews Forest topographic map (see location map). The following observations were made during this brief field investigation.