Turnagain Pass

It’s like a lingering cold that just won’t go away…… glide cracks linger, and litter, the mid-elevation slopes around Turnagain Pass. They continue to slowly open and every once in a while one will release. The last known release was on Sharks Fin (South facing ~2,000′) either late Wednesday or early Thursday. Since these avalanche spontaneously at any time, it is best to avoid, or do your best to limit time under, glide cracks. With questionable visibility again today, it may be difficult to identify glide cracks. 

Photo below: These are two glide avalanches that released one week ago on Seattle Ridge above the motorized parking lot. There are still three very prominent cracks that look to be on the verge of releasing next to these two.

With an overall generally stable snowpack we are dealing these days with ‘surface instabilities’. Shallow wind slabs in steep terrain are the most likely avalanche that could be triggered by snowmachiners, skiers or snowboarders today. Between 1 and 4″ of snow fell overnight and we have another 1-3″ of light snow in the forecast today. Add to this, moderate ridgetop Easterly winds and we have shallow wind slabs. These are most likely going to be right near ridgelines where the wind is blowing. I’m guessing there will be ridgelines that have very little wind and hence no wind slab issue and a LOW avalanche danger.

If the skies clear enough for travel to the Alpine zones, watch for recent wind drifted snow and stiffer snow over softer snow. Good ways to do this are getting off old snowmachine tracks, or off the skin track, and using your boot or pole to feel what the surface layers do. Does your boot or pole punch through to softer snow? Or, is there a progression from soft to stiffer snow? Remember too, this needs to be done in areas representative of where you are looking to ride and/or ski.