1 October 2013
Five people killed in rockslide on Mount Princeton in Chaffee County, Colorado
Posted by Dave Petley
On the day that the USGS has been effectively closed indefinitely as part of the US Government shutdown, news is emerging of a large, fatal rockslide on Mount Princeton in Chaffee Count, Colorado. At the time of writing five bodies have been found, and one injured person, a teenage girl, has been flown to hospital. The bodies of the people who have been killed have yet to be recovered as the landslide is still active.
According to reports the landslide occurred on the flanks of Mount Princeton at a viewing point for the Agnes Vaille falls in Chalk Creek Canyon. The map below, from here, shows the location of the falls and the trail that leads to them:
This is the Google Earth perspective image of the same site. The star is the approximate location of the waterfall, the arrow points to what appears to be an existing rockslide scar:
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Some reports suggest that one person remains missing.
I have visited this site several times. The granite is pretty well fractured with prevailing west-ish dip. Here is a photo from 2004, if it works:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxsNL1kMLJxGLXM0WUd3TE81WFk/edit?usp=sharing
Clearly, the eastern wall of the valley (same side as the old scar you pointed out) appears poised to go.