| Recent Avalanches? | Yes |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | No |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | No |
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Cornbiscuit
Ascended West face of Cornbiscuit to 2600′. Visibility was limited, thick clouds and valley fog moved in/out all day. Evaluated a North slope and found good stability in test plus pit. Skied N couloir and was surprised by glide crack 1/2 way down. We were able to ski around it without being directly below the glide. Could not see the glide crack from entrance of chute and it was a good reminder of how challenging it is to avoid glide cracks in steep terrain right now.
Obvious signs of instability
Observer Comments
Recent glide avalanches - Small glide release on Seattle Ridge just North of 'uptrack', Glide avalanche on Raggedtop in Girdwood Valley likely released between 5pm and 6:30pm (photo below)
Weather
Mostly cloudy with thick valley fog rolling in/out all day, brief periods of sun through clouds
28F - 34F at 1000'
Winds were calm
No precip
Snow surface
*1cm of new snow at Cornbiscuit
1000' - 1cm of new snow on firm m/f crust (all aspects)
1700' - 1cm of new on 1-2" firm sun crust on SW aspects and 6" low density snow on shaded aspects
2600' - 8" settled snow on W and N aspects
Snowpack
Pit at 1700' - HS=260, pit height=110cm, N aspect, 31*slope. See pit profile for details. Wanted to get a closer looks at the melt/freeze layers from the End of Feb storm. Did not perform any stability tests.
At 2600' probed from ridge to pit site, HS varied from 70cm to 210cm. Dug a test plus pit found good stability in the top 1 meter of snow. HS=210cm, 42* slope. Structure was very uniform and right side up. Surface snow was Fist hard decomposing fragments and precip particles . Tests: ECTX. Skied N aspect from pit location. Sluffing was slow and easy to manage.
Ski descent down a North aspect of Cornbiscuit. Wasn't able to see glide crack from ridge, but was able to ski around it safely.
Pit at 2600' on N aspect of Corbiscuit.
Pit profile at 1700' on N aspect of Cornbiscuit. Took a temp profile every 10cm in the top meter.
Photo of pit at 1700' on Cornbiscuit. Moist Melt/freeze grains were found 55cm below the surface.
This week the sun has melted most of snow from the Southeast facing ridges along Seattle Ridge.
Visibility was challenging with clouds and fog rolling through the valley all day.
Looking down at the large open glide cracks on the West face of Cornbiscuit.
Below 1500' the snow is firm and mostly supportable where a m/f layer has formed. Almost at the corn phase at this elevation.
Recent glide avalanche on Raggedtop in the Gridwood Valley