Avalanche: Turnagain

Location: Eddies

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Storm let up a bit for a nice afternoon.

Avalanche Details
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Trigger NaturalRemote Trigger Unknown
Avalanche Type Hard SlabAspect North Northwest
Elevation 1100ftSlope Angleunknown
Crown Depth 10inWidth 35ft
Vertical Rununknown  
Avalanche Details

Wind drift deposit below small cornice. Some 12x12m slab. Didnt break up much. Ran from crown about 7m.

Red Flags
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Obvious signs of instability
Recent Avalanches?Yes
Collapsing (Whumphing)?No
Cracking (Shooting cracks)?No
Weather & Snow Characteristics
Please provide details to help us determine the weather and snowpack during the time this observation took place.
Weather

In and out precip. Snain line around 300 ft above TH. 4-6 inches of new snow. Lulls in precip and lighter cloud covered allowed for some greenhousing, felt strongly on the face and eyes. Quite warm today below ridge line. Wind and temps kept snow dry up higher.

Snow surface

Saturated faceted snow down low to modestly low-density powder below tree line. Green housing created glopping and helped along settlement at mid-elevations. Some glaze crust exposed along ridge. Skied very well in the cross-loading and open trees.

Snowpack

Hasty pit: North, ~900 feet, 20x20 feet opening in trees. 10cm new snow, nice and light. 25 well condsolidated cm from previous storm, fist to 4-finger. Didn't notice much settlement moving around, and didnt feel cracky in the pit. The underlying surface hoar is still very weak and doesnt show any sign of going away. Another 25-30 cm of 4-finger and then the first facet crust layer. Finger to pencil hardness, but breaks to loose grains. Finally another 30-40cm of 4-finger slab to the 12 cm of basal facets. Overall snowpack is moving in healing direction, but old surface hoar layer creates opportunity for shallow slides to apply heavy loading to deeper slabs. The spatial variability of slab and facet strength/cohesion is probably high. Scary moderate.