Observation: Turnagain

Location: Eddies to 2500'

Date:

January 17, 2017 2:00pm

Observer:

Johnston-Bloom/ Chapman Professional

Route & General Observations

Standard skin track to ridge just below the final steep pitch/Eddies headwall/west face. 2500′

Red Flags

Red flags are simple visual clues that are a sign of potential avalanche danger. Please record any sign of red flags below.

Obvious signs of instability

Recent Avalanches?	Yes
Collapsing (Whumphing)?	No
Cracking (Shooting cracks)?	No

Observer Comments

Small dry loose avalanches/point releases off of Seattle Ridge and skier triggered sluffing on west face of Magnum, skier triggered soft slab avalanche that was witnessed yesterday, 1.16.17 on the West face of Eddies, and a recent glide release on Seattle Ridge in steep terrain below little Sweden.

Weather & Snow Characteristics

Please provide details to help us determine the weather and snowpack during the time this observation took place.

Weather

Partly cloudy
Cold -6 at truck, single digits up higher
A few puffs of cold breeze but mostly calm

Snow surface

Fluffy new snow from car to ridge line. Exposed areas along ridge was slightly stiffer due to wind.

Snowpack

40 cm combined storm snow from Friday-Tuesday.
Dug at 1275' to look for the lower elevation surface hoar that was buried on January 13th and look at overall lower elevation structure in anticipation of the Placer/20 mile opener tomorrow!
HS: 130, W aspect, 28 degrees. 1.13 buried surface hoar 40 cm below surface was very visible with 1 cm grains and was resting on pencil hard wind crust. The new snow above was 4F to F. Test results on that layer CT 19, 22, 21, ECTX. Slab above was not cohesive. There were two more layers of buried surface hoar, 12.24 and 12.15. 12.24 was non reactive. 12.15 test results CT 24, 26, 24, PST End 50/100. The 1.13 layer has potential to be concerning if the slab above it gets more cohesive or we get a bigger load on top.

Hand pits along skin track showed lack of slab and minimal wind effect. More exposed areas along ridge were slightly stiffer in the top few inches. Old wind effected surfaces were easy to feel in places underneath new snow. No cracking observed.

Skier triggered avalanche on west face was shallow and skier reported it was soft and 4-5 inches deep.
There were a few much smaller human triggered slab pockets observed on the way down that were about the same depth.

Photos & Video

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