Turnagain Pass Avalanche Forecast

Special Announcements

Welcome to the 2013/2014 winter season! Our staff is back in the office and  operations are starting up. A big thank you to everyone who attended the Bear Tooth Fundraiser as well as the Southcentral Alaska Snow and Avalanche Workshop. Both were a  huge success thanks to this great community.

We will be updating our Turnagain Advisory page with intermittent snowpack and weather observations  for the beginning of November. Full advisories will begin when the snow flies in earnest – hopfully  well before  Thanksgiving.

Currently our snow line sits around 2,000ft. Below is a photo of Pyramid Peak taken from the Tesoro gas station on the Seward Highway  – Monday Nov. 4th.

Though the snow line is fairly high in our neck of the woods people are still getting out – hiking mostly but in some cases skiing/boarding and  hours  north from the Anchorage Bowl snowmachining.  A few hikers in the Front Range were able to trigger a relatively small but far running wind slab avalanche in nasty terrain over the weekend. Photo of the crown is below. You can see the full observation HERE. This is a great reminder that even small amounts of snow can be a problem. It’s also good to remember that  early season avalanches can be more dangerous than later in the winter on the same slopes due to the rocks/etc  that have yet to be covered up.

A note on rescue gear:

If you haven’t done so already, make sure all your rescue gear is in order. That means putting new batteries in your beacon and cleaning the terminals if necessary. Checking to see if the cable that holds your probe together is still well intact at the hinge points and not going to break upon assembly. Is your airbag working properly? The American Avalanche Institute has a bunch of great blogs to peruse as we await the white stuff.