| Recent Avalanches? | No |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | Yes |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | No |
Observation: Chugach State Park
Location: Falls Creek / Indianhouse Mtn
Up Falls Creek trail to the ‘Falls Creek Couloir’, boot up and ski, then circled around to the basin below the Indianhouse peak. Skinned 3/4 of the way up the col to the skinner’s right of summit; triggered significant ‘whumph’ and bailed on route.
Obvious signs of instability
Observer Comments
Triggered significant collapse on northeastern aspect of the Indianhouse ridge line, at about 3,300' in a thin spot of the snow pack (60cm).
Weather
Overcast with increasing clouds and lowering ceiling through the afternoon. Light snow was falling by 3pm. Winds were calm, temps in the 20's.
Snow surface
Snow in the Indianhouse zone ran the gamut of wind impact from settled powder, soft wind slab, hard wind slab, sastrugi. We encountered all of these in some amount on aspects from North --> West --> South.
Snowpack
Performed two pit tests. The first near the base of the Falls Creek Couloir, nearly due north, 3,100', at 37 degrees. Snowpack was very deep here, I dug the pit down 5' and could still plunge the full length of a 320cm probe into the snow. ECTX.
We dug the 2nd pit after triggering the collapse off the Indianhouse ridge line. Snow pack here was thin (60cm). See photo. 3,300', North West aspect, 30 degrees. ECTP12. 20cm slab on facets.
IMG_3325