Turnagain Pass

Widespread natural avalanche activity was seen on the east face of Seattle Ridge yesterday – releasing sometime in the morning hours. These slopes were loaded by moderate westerly winds, not associated with snowfall, that shifted from the predominant easterly flow Wednesday night through last night. This is the first significant avalanche activity seen on east aspects.

Today, a shift back to west winds, increasing to 30mph by this evening, may not be enough for fresh slabs to develop during the daylight hours, but any slabs from the past several days are still VERY suspect for human triggering as they are sitting on weak faceted snow. Especially concerning in areas that have not seen much traffic.

If one remembers back a week ago to the end of our period of cold and clear weather then you’ll remember how weak the surface snow was then. So weak it would easily sluff down the slope without much effort. This was the result of extensive faceting under clear and cold conditions that created what we are now calling the November facets. We have now added ~16” of snow from two storms on top of these weak facets resulting in easy natural and human triggered avalanches. The tenuous nature of the weak layer reared its head yesterday with the significant natural activity on E Seattle Ridge mentioned above.

Yet, even areas out of the wind affected snow are concerning. Our party yesterday easily triggered a small slope, just out of the wind, that failed in the November facets and kept us off any larger steeper slopes. Collapsing is still prevalent, and other than recent avalanches is your best clue to unstable snow – this has been keeping many people off the steeper and more committing terrain. That said, the riding conditions are quite improved and good terrain management can make for a great day in the backcounty.