Turnagain Pass Avalanche Forecast

Saturday night brought a brief ‘refresh’ of snow to most areas in Turnagain Pass and Girdwood Valley. Around 3″ of wet snow fell at 1,000′ (which is now capped by a crust) and 6″ of low density snow at the higher elevations above treeline. Moderate to strong Easterly winds along the ridgelines accompanied the snowfall. It was no surprise to see shallow wind slabs along the Tincan Ridge yesterday. Although these slabs were present, they were quite stubborn and hard to initiate on test slopes. The wind slabs sit on old snow (broken precipitation particles) with buried surface hoar intermixed, essentially Saturday’s surface snow.

For today, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, there are two types of wind slabs to watch for: Old and New. 

Old wind slabs: These older lingering wind slabs are in the 6″ to a foot deep range. And, they can be tricky; meaning they may not release till you are well on the slope. They also may be obscured by a skiff of fresh snow. Quick hand pits and jumping on test slopes are good ways to suss these out.

New wind slabs: We are expecting an increase in East winds later in the day. Keep an eye out for active wind loading. Any fresh wind slab should be touchy and release easily (as opposed to the older, stubborn wind slab). These also can form on top of one another.

Photo below is Graham Predeger testing a fresh wind slab/cornice feature from the top of Seattle Ridge yesterday (credit: Sully). These small terrain features are good ways to test the snow without committing to steep avalanche terrain.

This photo below is from a test slope near Hippy Bowl on Tincan Ridge yesterday. What it shows are both a new wind slab (3-4″ thick) stepping down to an older wind slab (6″ thick). I know, it’s tough to see, but hopefully you get the idea… 

After several days of glide cracks releasing on Turnagain Pass – some of which were ‘front and center’ on Seattle Ridge – there was only one new glide avalanche seen yesterday. This was a smaller glide on the South face of Wolverine Ridge around 1,500′ in elevation.

Again, we preach avoidance for this avalanche problem. Avoiding, or doing your best to limit your exposure time, under these glide cracks is advised. There are still many large cracks looming – most notably on the East face of Seattle Ridge and on the South and West faces of Tincan ridge. These are the two areas most easily accessed by backcontry travelers.

Below is Heather’s photo from Seattle Ridge on Saturday. You can clearly see the two glide avalanches from over the weekend as well as the looming brown crack on the next gully over to the right. With yesterday’s 3-6″ of new snow, many of these cracks are ‘dusted over’ and much harder to see now.