Avalanche: Chugach State Park

Didn’t seem like the same light fluffy calm world it was yesterday by the time I arrived at the Glen Alps parking lot. As I came around Blueberry Hill, to where the old trail and new trail start, I noted 3 hikers coming straight down the steep avalanche prone hill above. I thought to myself that might pop if they go straight out onto the roll. Sure enough they did and it did and a fracture propagated all the way across the hill, wrapping around for an impressive length. None of the hikers were caught and after a little pause they glisaded without incident down the bed surface. The fracture was maybe a foot deep and the debris was not high.

I decided to continue on to the bench platform thingy and then ski the alders. However when I got to the bench I noted a skier in the main flattop gully standing still. After a brief pause to determine if it was a tree or a skier up there I watched the main face of flattop rip out into the gully. The slide was fairly impressive and continued down the skiers gully almost to the same elevation as the bench. It passed about 10 feet to the side of the skier. I continued up and checked in with them. They were simply fixing their skins and I admired their chill attitude and outlook.

I assumed the main chute was open for business at this point since it had slid and proceeded up. 2 more skiers dropped into the side chutes which had not slid. I assumed they would pop out a slide given the tender nature of the snowpack but they ripped down without incident. I then skied off the top which was still pretty good. While skiing through the debris I noted it was fairly sizeable. And then I noted a wind skin on top of all the powder which made me sad. But I also felt it had been a rather surreal time on flattop and was quite happy everyone was okay and had some semblance of fun while braving through the wind and snow. Although it can’t be seen in this photo there’s some debris in there somewhere