Avalanche: Other Regions

Location: Aleknagik, AK

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Alaska Avalanche School Backcountry 101 program with Aleknagik school students. Quick look at springlike snowpack on our afternoon tour to City Hill.

Avalanche Details
If this is an avalanche observation, click yes below and fill in the form as best as you can. If people were involved, please provide details.
Trigger NaturalRemote Trigger0
Avalanche Type Soft SlabAspect South
ElevationunknownSlope Angle 35deg
Crown Depth 6inWidth 30ft
Vertical Run 30ft  
Avalanche Details

We observed few older small wind slabs on small windloaded slopes northeast of Aleknagik on a nordic ski tour through the forested areas northeast of Aleknagick. These most likely were triggered after the most recent wind event on Friday. It would be interesting to see signs of similar activity on higher alpine areas.

Red Flags
Red flags are simple visual clues that are a sign of potential avalanche danger. Please record any sign of red flags below.
Observer Comments

None observed.

Weather & Snow Characteristics
Please provide details to help us determine the weather and snowpack during the time this observation took place.
Weather

Sunny with clear skies; air temps above freezing. Light northerly winds.

Snow surface

~ 5 cm melt freeze crust with varied phases of softening from fully supportable to easily breakable.

Snowpack

Total snowpack height varied from 20cm to 65 cm. The season's weather history had created few remarkable layers, all of which were moist or wet on Mon afternoon. Notably snow had just gone moist with Sat PM and Sun AM rain/wet snow and warm air temperatures. Layer of concern consisted of 5 cm of wet facets on top of early season rain crust only about 10 cm above the ground. It took some force to initiate the failures (i.e. CT 13 SC; CT16 SC), but there was no propagation potential at all on these wetted layers.

Photos & Video
Please upload photos below. Maximum of 5 megabytes per image. Click here for help on resizing images. If you are having trouble uploading please email images separately to staff.