| Trigger | Skier | Remote Trigger | Yes |
| Avalanche Type | Soft Slab | Aspect | Northeast |
| Elevation | 2200ft | Slope Angle | 38deg |
| Crown Depth | 24in | Width | 50ft |
| Vertical Run | 70ft |
Avalanche: Turnagain
Location: Eddies
Eddies to 2200′ (top of treeline)
Avalanche Details
Spoke to a party that remote triggered (from ~50' away) a small but deep avalanche near Eddies treeline, and then went to take a peek - photos and crown profile are below. The avalanche failed on 1mm fist+ hardness facets sitting on top of the thick Thanksgiving Crust. The location showed signs of wind affect from the past week, with the crown varying in depth from 1-3'. The terrain feature was small and fairly steep, with blocks running on a 38+ degree slope. Cracking occurred above the crown, in places where the slope angle was in the mid-30s.
On a SE aspect, I also managed to trigger a small wind pocket (15'x15') that was 6" deep, and a thin recent wind slab was also touchy/easy to kick off at the site of this deeper small avalanche.
No other avalanche activity observed, though obscured skies and light snow limited visibility.
Obvious signs of instability
| Recent Avalanches? | Yes |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | Yes |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | Yes |
Observer Comments
On top of avalanches, I had a deep sounding whumph on a steep SE aspect rollover near treeline (2200'), and shooting cracks in some wind loaded features (also near treeline).
Weather
Obscured skies, temps around 20, and light snow (no more than 1cm/hour) throughout the day.
Generally light variable winds, with some steady light winds at 2200' from the north or east.
1-2" of accumulation from 10:30 - 3:30.
Snow surface
Soft new snow, with ski penetration of 6-8" in areas that haven't experienced wind in the last week! At the parking lot (400') 10-12" of soft snow sits on the Thanksgiving Crust. This increases to ~24" by 1100', with 24-30" of soft snow found over the crust in wind protected areas to treeline.
Even a thin dusting of new snow could be found on wind scoured surfaces along the uptrack ridgeline.
Snowpack
See below for pit/snow structure at treeline.
The crown of the remote triggered avalanche discussed above, which failed on a thin layer of facets sitting on the Thanksgiving Crust.
The crown/debris, along with the tracks of the skier that triggered the slide (on the left side of the photo). The tracks were ~50' from the slide, and the avalanche itself was ~50' wide as well.
Chunks of shallow wind slabs (about the depth of the glove!) were easy to kick off at the location of the deeper slide.
Crown profile/stability tests that were performed on a lower angle section of crown. While there were no cracks in the snowpack above this profile, the weak layer could have easily failed during the avalanche, impacting stability test results.
Shooting cracks - up to 15' long, and no more than 6" deep - observed twice near treeline.
Light snow and obscured skies made it difficult to tell what was happening on neighboring mountains and slopes.