Observation: Turnagain

Location: Bertha Creek/Cornbiscuit

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Toured up to the back side of Super Bowl via Bertha Creek and skied the south side of Cornbiscuit. We were skiing on firm surfaces from yesterday’s winds. We saw anti tracks, sustrugi, and some firm wind board. We saw a few natural wind slab avalanches in the D1.5-2.5 range. Most of the avalanche activity looked to have been confined to new snow, but we saw one avalanche in the Goldpan area that had stepped down to another interface, possibly the surface from last Saturday. We did not see any red flags while we were out, but we were careful to avoid slopes that were loaded yesterday.

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

Warm, with mid-30's in the parking lot. Mostly calm winds, with a light easterly wind at the ridgetop. Mostly cloudy skies.

Snow surface

Yesterday's rain level looked to have been around 1300'. On our way out the snow surface was moist up to about 1800'. From about 2000' and up, it was obvious the winds had done some work. Sastrugi, wind board, anti-tracks. The surface was still soft enough to hold an edge, and the skiing was actually not to bad considering there had been 100 mph winds the day before.

Snowpack

We didn't dig today, but we did see plenty of avalanche activity from yesterday. Most of the avalanches failed at the new snow interface, but one looked to have stepped down to an interface that may have been a week or two old. Average crown depths were about 2' deep.

Photos & Video
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