Observation: Turnagain

Location: Corn Biscuit, SuperBowl, Goldpan

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Corn Biscuit ridge to the North chutes, then to GoldPan to look at South aspects.

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

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

Gorgeous day in the backcountry. Sunny with a very light Easterly breeze on the ridgetops. Temperatures were around 30F but felt much warmer in the sun.

Snow surface

Springtime effects are in full swing at Turnagain Pass! All slopes with a southerly tilt are sun crusted (see photo) in the morning before softening into either nice skiing pseudo corn or breakable / unsupportable crusts by late in the day. Northerly slopes in the shade harbor great settled powder.

3-5mm surface hoar grew overnight from 2,500' to ridgetops. This sits on soft snow on shady aspects and on a sun crust on southerly aspects which melted during the day.

Snowpack

Southerly aspects: The top several inches (or more) of the snowpack continues to go through diurnal melt-freeze regimes each day. This has lead to wet loose or wet slab concerns for later in the day when the pack is in the melt phase and low danger in the morning when it's frozen. We were not able to initiate wet avalanches today in melting snow, yet I imagine this would be easy in the right place at the right time of daytime heating.

North aspects: These aspects had dry snow and good skiing. We were able to find areas where facets sit under a 2' slab but were showing signs of gaining strength. The slab in these areas appears to be losing it's strength and beginning to facet. Both these signs point to a continued decrease in triggering a slab avalanche failing in the faceted snow under the St. Patty's Day storm. Dry sluffs were fast but very low volume.

Photos & Video
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