Turnagain Pass
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The Bottom Line
Today is Monday, the beginning of Thanksgiving week, and this will be one of our last updates before we begin issuing avalanche advisories! A quick moving storm added 2-6″ inches of light snow to the mountains around Turnagain Pass, Girdwood and the Kenai yesterday. The snow depth at the Turnagain Pass SNOTEL station at 1,880′ now reads 7″ – that is pretty thin for Nov 20th. Generally speaking, the snow cover is shallow and variable. Snow depths above treeline range from 6″ to 2′. There looks to be a low pressure system setting up to bring another round of snow for Thanksgiving through this weekend. Look for more on that Wednesday with our next report!
Today’s avalanche concerns:
Although the few inches of new snow from yesterday may be enough for small sluffs in steep terrain and may have been blown into small soft wind slabs, what the new snow is concealing is the most concerning: Old hard wind slabs sitting on faceted snow.
Yes the snowpack is thin, but there are still slopes and gullies that collected enough wind blown snow from the last month to form a hard slab. These old slabs can pop and avalanche if they are sitting on weak snow below. This was the exact case on Saturday when a hunter was walking along a ridge near Carter Lake on the Kenai . The hunter collapsed the weak layer with his foot when getting off his snowshoes and penetrating through the slab. He was not on the slope, but the collapse propagated over the ridge and he remotely triggered an avalanche 75′ away. Take a look at the image below. These old hard slabs could ruin your day quickly as even a small one can take you down a very unpleasant ride through rocks.
So for today and this week – the slopes with the most snow are the most suspect for one of these larger avalanches. The problem is, these are the slopes we will be drawn to as to avoid hitting rocks and ground with our skis and boards… The obvious RED FLAG clues may not be present, making your decision to ride a slope or gully more difficult. Digging in to see if the pack has a harder slab over weak facets is a great way to suss this out. But, know that pits don’t always tell the story of the slope next to them. Keep these things in mind if headed to the mountains and remember avalanche season has started. Use safe travel protocol and know how to use your beacon, probe and shovel.
Below are a few photos from Heather and Aleph’s field day last week. Mentally paint 2-6″ of very light snow on top and this will be a picture of what conditions are like now.
Sunburst and Magnum
Seattle Ridge
Variable wind drifted snow on Tincan
Snowpack structure in area with shallow wind slab over facets
