| Recent Avalanches? | Yes |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | No |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | No |
Observation: Girdwood
Location: Crow Creek
Nice day up Magpie. Broke through the fog around 2,000’ and enjoyed the beautiful winter light.
Obvious signs of instability
Observer Comments
We saw a few new avalanches today.
1st- we saw a few new glide releases on the goat shoulder.
2nd- a 3-6’ deep crown below the goat shoulder around 3800’, west facing. It was not super wide, perhaps a 100-200’.
3rd- very large avalanche on a northwest facing slope at around 4,500’. I estimate the crown 3-5’ deep and the avalanche 2000’ wide.
4th- a deep crown on the north side of Hendrix (Mystery Mountain). I viewed this from a few miles away but guess the crown was a similar depth and 200-400’ wide. Northwest facing around 5000’.
I hypothesize that these avalanches released during the stormy weather earlier this week. These slides all happened on the leeward side of the prevailing storm winds which makes me think that wind loading was a contributing factor. Also, it is possible that these high elevation avalanches failed deep in the snowpack on facets that formed during the early season.
Weather
Cold, icy mustache and boogers all day.
Snow surface
High quality in wind protect areas. The alpine had a paper thin wind skin that made it feel slightly upside down.
Snowpack
No formal test. Probing around 3800’ snow height was 300 cm with a variety of hard wind layers throughout.
Love that December light.
Very large avalanche above the Milk Glacier