Turnagain Pass

Today will be one of those classic storm days – maybe not in the gnarly Chugach storm category, but it definitely has enough punch to spice up the avalanche conditions. We have had 6″ of new snow at treeline overnight, which often translates to 8-10” at the upper elevations. With the addition of the same today, we are looking at between 1 and 2 feet of new snow in just under 24 hours. This is all being blown around by quite strong easterly winds (averaging 40mph, gusting 70mph). That said, it’s a text book case for storm snow avalanches:

Wind Slab:  Winds will be moving the snow around and loading slopes during the day. These slabs will be in the 1-4’ range and naturals are possible. Though wind slabs formed yesterday were quite stubborn due to the mild temperatures, don’t count on that today. Despite the mild temps, things are loading quickly and could be quite touchy regardless.

Storm Slab:  The new snow looks to be coming in slightly upside down. This can create a slab/weak layer combo in the storm snow and produce slab avalanches even out of the wind. This may or may not be an issue today, but it’s good to keep in mind.

Loose snow:  Sluffing in the new snow should be prevalent and easy to initiate by a person.

Cornices:  These continue to grow and calve with each storm in the past couple weeks of warmer temperatures.

Below treeline:  Watch for winds that could possibly penetrate and load rollovers below treeline. Also, a series of crusts begin 6-12” below the existing loose snow.  This could act as a bed surface if enough weight overloads the snow at the top of the crust. Digging in with your hand and seeing how well the snow is sticking to the crust is always a good idea.

For the past few days we have been talking about a couple mid-pack crusts (1.5-3’ deep) and the weak snow that surrounds them. There are two in particular, one formed January 21-23 and the other January 30. These exist up to ~2,800’ – give or take depending on location. This facet/crust “sandwich” is disconcerting and has shown its head in the Girdwood Valley with a very large class 3 avalanche triggered Monday 2/11 in the Winner Creek area. We have been following these layers in the Turnagain zone since they were buried and they have shown little evidence to be a problem (no avalache activity/scary pit results) – yet…  This may be changing as we are now seeing some propagation propensity as Fitz found yesterday. In the pits my party dug, one out of three was concerning.

With today’s rapid loading, we could possibly see avalanches break to these weak layers and bed surfaces. We could also potentially see new snow avalanches step down and trigger them. Today could be a good test.