Turnagain Pass

There was a very close call with a skier taking a fall with a large cornice break yesterday on Gold Pan peak (behind Magnum Ridge) – photos below. Please take a minute to read the two reports HERE and HERE. We are grateful to these skiers for sharing their story and so glad the skier who was carried 1,000′ down the slope was uninjured.

There was also a report of a wide skier triggered wind slab around 4,400′ just northwest of the Girdwood Valley. It was reported to be 300′ wide and up to 2′ deep. No one caught.

Series of photos from the cornice break on Gold Pan Peak yesterday. Photos:Neil Gotschall, 1.16.22.

There was quite a bit of traffic in the mountains yesterday and we received 11 observations from different groups – thank you! Many folks were finding a stable snowpack, but there were a few that did not. These unstable areas were mostly in the Alpine zone around 4,000′ and higher and associated with wind loading from last week’s stormy weather. With another fairly quiet day weather-wise, we can expect similar conditions today.

Wind slab avalanches and cornice breaks appear to be our greatest concern. There was a party in the high terrain around Girdwood that had two large collapses (whumpfs) along a ridge, one of which triggered a series of cracks on a fairly low angle slope below them. See the photos below. This slope had significant wind loading and was able to produce cracks all the way over to the slope next to it. It is unknown what the wind slab was sitting on, but either way, it’s a clear sign to be very suspect of any slope with signs of loading.

Crack that was triggered by skier 50′ away from the ridge when the skiers felt a large whumpf. Photo: George C., 1.16.22.

Cracks can also be seen on the adjacent slope. Photo: George C., 1.16.22.

Along with looking for wind loading, be sure to listen for any whumpfing, watch for any cracks that shoot out from you and generally stiffer snow over softer snow. There could be wind slabs lurking in cross-loaded gullies and lower on slopes just over rollovers.

Cornices:  As advised by the party that experiences the cornice fall yesterday, give these features a wider berth than you might think. They have grown considerably during last week and there could be other cornices that just need a bit more weight to fall.

Buried under last week’s storm snow is the New Year’s crust (anywhere from 2-5′ deep depending on location). There are also a few other crusts that formed during the stormy weather last week at elevations around 1800′ and below. We’ve been tracking the snow around these crusts to see if avalanches could break in areas that have not seen wind loading but do have a buried weakness.

The good news is, the snow around these crusts is generally getting harder and becoming more stable. That said, it doesn’t mean we can forget about them. Especially as we venture into bigger terrain. There could be an outlier and hence keeping to our safe travel practices, communicating with our partners and understanding the consequences if an avalanche occurs are good ways to stack the odds in our favor.

A look at the snowpack on Cornbiscuit – a thinner snowpack area. Photo:AAS Rec Level 1, 1.16.22.