Observation: Turnagain

Location: Corn Biscuit

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Toured up the Corn Biscuit NW ridge and descended the Westerly aspect near the very large glide crack.

Red Flags
Red flags are simple visual clues that are a sign of potential avalanche danger. Please record any sign of red flags below.
Obvious signs of instability
Recent Avalanches?Yes
Collapsing (Whumphing)?No
Cracking (Shooting cracks)?No
Observer Comments

Skier triggered shallow wind slab in Superbowl. The slab looked to have been small (6-10" thick) but propagated around 75'. Essentially a long wind pillow that was very short in width - wind loaded area just on the lee side of the ridge. The slab entrained a moderate amount of sluff on the descent and ran ~ 300'.

Sluffs in the 4-6" of loose snow on steep slopes - moderate volume

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

Clear skies, light variable winds, Temperatures in the upper 20's F.

Snow surface

Thin breakable crust up to 1,600', 4-6" of soft settled powder above this. Winds have affected some upper elevation zones - wind texture could be seen just off ridgelines.

Snowpack

Other than the surface instabilities (shallow wind slab slabs and sluffs composed of the 6" of snow Friday) the snowpack below is stable. The glide cracks remain large we all as cornices.

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.