Turnagain Pass Avalanche Forecast

The first significant storm of the season is on the doorstep this morning, and it’s a warm one. Temperatures have begun to climb and winds are picking up from the East. A moisture laden band of snow is on the way from the Gulf and between 10 – 20″ of snow is expected today with another 10 – 20″ tonight above 1,000′. This is just what the snowpack needs – a big warm storm to hopefully stomp out the shallow, weak and precarious existing snowpack. Not only will this ‘rapid loading’ event be enough to create natural avalanches in itself, the loading will occur on a VERY weak snowpack making it that much easier for avalanches to release. 

Again, travel in avalanche terrain during this storm is NOT recommended – in fact, today is a great day for Christmas shopping!

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During the past several days we have seen widespread human triggered avalanches due to our current snowpack structure. The set up is relatively simple, a slab averaging 12 – 20″ thick is sitting precariously on a layer of weak facets. Skiers have been able to trigger multiple avalanches from ridges and areas hundreds of feet away – this is how touchy we are talking. With a new load of snow on the way piling up on the existing slab, we can expect the balance to be tipped and widespread natural avalanches breaking near the ground. 

Pre-storm snowpack structure from Sunburst at Turnagain Pass:

Tincan Common on Dec 1st – Skiers along looker’s right hand ridge, out of view, remotely triggered these three pockets while descending (Victoria Lytle photo)  

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