Turnagain Pass

Another day of brilliant sunny skies and cold temperatures is on tap – Marvelous March. Winds are slated to remain mostly light, possibly getting up to moderate (15mph) along some ridgelines from the North. It is that time of year where longer days can be had in the backcountry. As we often say at times of low avalanche danger, Low doesn’t mean No. And this should remain in the minds of all of us getting out into the steep terrain. Snow is a complex thing and it seems once we let our guard down, something happens. So, keep up your safe travel habits and always watch for changes in the snowpack as well as weather. Below are the ‘Normal Caution’ concerns that underscore the current green conditions: 

Glide Avalanches:
Glide cracks continue to slowly open above popular terrain on Seattle Ridge and in other areas of the advisory area. These could release at any time, watch for these cracks and avoid being under them, photo below.

Wind Slabs:
Old and hard winds slabs are easy to find but for the most part they are locked into place. Steep rocky areas, where they are not supported from below, will be the most suspect zones for someone to pop one out. These areas are also where slabs are likely sitting on weak faceted snow. Even a small wind slab can have big consequences if a person is knocked over cliffs or down steep terrain. Watch for hard snow over weak loose snow as well as shooting cracks and whumphing noises. 

Loose Snow (Sluffs):
Watch your sluff. Dry sluffs on steep slopes are probable and are getting larger by the day. Althought many steep South slopes have a sun crust, a slight change in aspect still sports soft snow and sluff concerns. 

Cornices:
Cornices should always be given a wide berth from above and limit exposure time traveling underneath.

Persistent Slabs and Deep Slabs: 
There are various weak layers in our thin snowpack. Buried surface hoar sits 1-3+’ below the surface and faceted snow sits in the mid and base of the pack. These weak layers with varying degrees of strength are in a dormant stage due to plenty of time to adjust with a lack of chaging weather. Although this means the layers are not producing avalanches, it doesn’t mean an outlier can’t occur which could cause a large avalanche breaking deeper in the pack. 

Opening glide crack to the looker’s left of the snowmachine up-track on Seattle Ridge (apologize for poor image quality, but hopefully you get the idea).