Salida resident Susan Mayfield sent us these very interesting before and after images of the area where the rock slide occurred on February 14. Susan commented “The two photographs were taken from slightly different viewpoints, but as you can see in the ‘before’ photo, there is a rock wedged in a crack in the cliff wall, and this was the section of the cliff that broke off. I hadn’t heard anyone mention this as a possible contributing cause for the rock slide.”
9/20/2010 Photo of cliff face before Cotopaxi Rock Slide. The rock slide occurred on the left side of cliff.
- 9/20/11 Detail… Before rock slide
2/23/2011 Detail...After rock slide
An update……I sent these photos to Ty Ortiz, the rockfall specialist at Colorado Dept. of Transportation, CDOT, and received the following response from him. He answered my question about the wedged rock possibly being the cause of the Cotopaxi rockslide:
“Thank you very much for the pics. Whenever possible we like to have before and after pics of these types of incidents. The rock wedged in the crack of the cliff wall probably did not contribute to the slide. It may have acted as an indicator, however. If the rock had slipped further into the crack before the failure it would have indicated that the crack was actively opening.
Once again, thank you for the before and after photos.
Regards …
Ty Ortiz
CDOT – Rockfall Program”
Nice work from my favorite “rock hound”
this magnificent rock formation was the one that I most often photogtaphed as we’d drive through the canyon. I’ve yet to see it since the rockslide. I plan on doing that very soon. Thanks for posting pictures of it.