Turnagain Pass Avalanche Forecast

WELCOME TO THE 2015/16 WINTER SEASON!!

The Chugach National Forest Avalanche Center is gearing up for the much-anticipated €˜El Nino’ season of 2015/16; This has started off with a Halloween treat of around 4″ of snow at Turnagain Pass. We will be issuing intermittent updates during the next few weeks on this page as well as posting on our Facebook and Instagram pages (Facebook link in the upper right corner and Instagram: @chugachavy). Full advisories with danger ratings will begin sometime around Thanksgiving or as snow and avalanche conditions warrant.

A call for observations!

Crowdsourcing is a major part of our information gathering process. We rely heavily on you, the public, to help us keep tabs on snow and avalanche conditions. Anyone getting out this weekend? Please send us some photos, videos and/or a sentence or two on what you are seeing in the mountains (We LOVE photos and videos by the way!). The best way to do this is on our €˜submit an observation’ link (under €˜observations’). You can also use your phone if you have a web browser. Thank you in advance!!

Upcoming events:

                      Friday, Nov 6th:  Southcentral Alaska Avalanche Workshop  – Alaska’s regional professional workshop

                      Thursday, Nov 12th:    Friends of the CNFAIC Fall FUNdraiser  – Don’t miss this chance to support your                                                
                                                                           avalanche center and see Greg Hill discussing “Mountain Lessons”  

            Thursday, Nov 19th:  Ski Film Night – Fade to Winter  – Get your stoke on while supporting avalanche education and forecasting

             More events, including our free awareness courses and Fireside Chats are listed on our calendar page.

Early season hazards:

You know the drill: Rocks, alders, crevasses and, yes, avalanches. It doesn’t take much snow to slide €“ if it’s not enough to bury a person, it can still rake someone over the ground (the cheese-grater effect, unpleasant for obvious reasons).

What to clue into? 1) Recent avalanches in the past 1 or 2 days? And 2) rapid changes in weather? This includes, recent or current snowfall, wind, rain on snow and warm temperatures after a storm. These are the biggies and what not to forget from our avalanche awareness courses. It’s time to tune our brains into the avalanche scene. Check out this graphic from Canada below:

Motorized use:

A reminder that motorized use on the Chugach National Forest remains closed until there is sufficient snow cover. You can monitor changes in open/closed status below on the €˜conditions report’. Status is updated intermittently as conditions change.