Observation: Turnagain

We were up at the pass setting up the ‘Are You Beeping?’ sign at Tincan and were able to get up for a quick tour in the afternoon on Cornbiscuit. We saw a very large glide avalanche on the Repeat Offender avalanche path on Seattle Ridge, above the motorized uptrack. That avalanche occurred sometime last night or early this morning. It’s really concerning how many active glide cracks still exist directly above the uptrack. This is the second time during this glide cycle that an avalanche has released above the uptrack, but both have barely hit it. The portions that are most threatened are like a ticking time bomb- it is likely the uptrack will take a direct hit at some point this season.

We dug a quick pit at 2000′ on Cornbiscuit (just above alder line) to look for the early January weak layers and couldn’t find them. For now it seems like the ongoing glide cycle is the main concern until the outflow winds pick up later in the week.