Turnagain Pass Avalanche Forecast
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Saturday, November 21st UPDATE:
After a much-anticipated series of storms rolled through the past several days, the Girdwood, Turnagain and Summit areas have picked up a total of 6-10″ of new snow. Last night’s pulse added roughly 6″ at the mid-elevations in Girdwood Valley and 4″ in the Turnagain and Summit areas. Winds have been moderate to strong from the North and East, yet have switched to the West this morning. Throughout the weekend, the Westerly winds should be strong enough to transport snow and load slopes – as well as usher in colder air.
Yesterday we had our first reported ‘human triggered’ avalanche on the Chugach National Forest this season. This was a skier triggered slide in the Summit Lake area of the Kenai (Tenderfoot Ridge). See link for a great report sent in of the avalanche.
Photo: 8″ thick x 50′ wide wind slab, skier triggered on the South face of Tenderfoot Ridge, ran to valley floor (photo credit: Chad Saetre)
AVALANCHE OUTLOOK FOR THIS WEEKEND:
Due to new snow and wind, human triggered avalanches will be possible this weekend. These are most likely to be on upper elevation steep slopes where winds have deposited new snow into slabs (~6-12″ thick). There are a variety of old surfaces out there, how much snow has piled up and how well it sticks to these surfaces will be the thing to watch for.
Although the snow cover is shallow, it can still be unstable (as seen in the Tenderfoot slide). Sugary facets formed during the cold snap sit at the bottom of the snowpack in certain areas. In this case, an avalanche triggered may break at the ground taking the whole, albeit thin, snow cover.
*Safer areas to recreate will be on slopes that have seen little wind effect and smaller amounts of new snow.
Things to keep an eye out for:
– Watch for cracking in the new snow, especially where winds have stiffened the snow
– Quick hand pits are good ways to assess how the new snow is bonding with the old snow
– Look for recent avalanches and listening for ‘whoomphing’, the big Red Flags for unstable snow
Special AnnouncementsADVISORIES?
We will begin issuing daily avalanche advisories for Turnagain Pass on Thanksgiving Day. Until then, we will continue to post intermittent updates.
Avalanche conditions OUTSIDE our forecast zone:
Up to 2′ of snow has fallen in the past couple days at Hatcher Pass. This area continues to have dangerous avalanche conditions. PLEASE see hatcherpassavalanchecenter.org for the Saturday morning report!!
