Turnagain Pass

Yesterday’s poor visibility made it challenging to see this unpredictable hazard. We received a report of a glide release on Seattle Ridge yesterday, but the exact location is unknown at this point. Glide cracks are appearing all over Turnagain Pass between 1000’ to 2500’ and are showing up in popular areas. Monitoring their movement is helpful, but there is no discernable pattern to predict a failure as they tend to fail naturally and on their own schedule. Warm temperatures can trigger them and so can cooling temperatures. Cracks can form and release in seconds or days later or sometimes a glide crack won’t release at all, and benignly just fill back in with snow.

Glide cracks are best to be given a wide berth.  Limit your exposure time spent underneath and if skiing or riding in terrain with glide cracks, try and map them out before your travels so as not to end up directly on top of or inside one.  Remember, when these do fail, they tend to be destructive, failing to the ground bringing the entirety of the snowpack with them.  

Along Seattle Ridge glide cracks are becoming more abundant in specific locations. Avoidance of these unpredictable harzards is key. Thanks for the photo and observation Travis!

Cornices have grown considerably during the past few weeks. Not only do they have the potential to fall naturally, but also to be triggered by the weight of a person or snowmachine. They can also trigger an avalanche on the slope below when they fall. Travel under or on them should be avoided. Today’s weather forecast should make travel into the Alpine easier with good visiblity, thus don’t forget cornices have the tendency to break farther back from the ridge than expected.   

As we move further away from our most recent storm event that ended on Jan.11 wind slabs are becoming a low likelihood concern. However triggering a lingering wind slab could have high consequences in places with cliffs, rocks, or trees below. Obvious signs like shooting cracks may not be present until its too late, as wind slabs are known for breaking above you, once you are well onto a slab. Ease into steep terrain and avoid terrain features with high consequences.

*Yesterday we received a report of buried surface hoar found in a snow pit in Lynx Creek.  This weak layer is more suspect in protected areas of the snowpack, but could be more widespread in this region. Similar to Summit Lake areas, Johnson Pass and Lynx Creek have a shallower snowpack where conservative terrain choices should be utilized.