Avalanche: Turnagain

Location: Goldpan

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Skied up Bertha creek to the lower slopes of Goldpan. We chose this spot to see if the persistent weak layer that was so active on Seattle yesterday was also reactive on the skiers side. We found a lot of avalanche activity from the past few days with some very wide propagation and crowns that were 3-6′ deep.

Avalanche Details
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Trigger UnknownRemote Trigger Unknown
Avalanche Type UnknownAspect Unknown
ElevationunknownSlope Angleunknown
Crown DepthunknownWidthunknown
Vertical Rununknown  
Avalanche Details

Lots of recent avalanche activity in this area. Elevations ranged from 2500 - 4000'. Likely released with the large wind event after the quick storm on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Largest crown was on the SW aspect of Cornbiscuit at about 3000'. Propagated across multiple gully features and sent debris way out into the flats. Another large crown that we investigated was on the small slope at the base of the Goldpan bowls. This was 3-6' deep and 750 - 1000' wide.

At upper elevations in Goldpan there were several deep and wide avalanches that we could only see the crowns. There were also several that looked shallower and were at higher elevation closer to the ridgeline.

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

Cold temps at the parking lot, but otherwise a beautiful day with calm to light winds and clear skies.

Snow surface

Large surface hoar on the surface up to our high point at about 3000' with some weak near surface facets underneath.

Snowpack

We did not dig any pits due to a short field day and our interest in looking at one of the recent avalanches. Based on the one we looked at I think most of the larger avalanches in this area released on the facets above the Thanksgiving melt freeze crust. There were several that were shallower at upper elevation in Goldpan that may have been on the interface between the Christmas and New Years storm layers.

Photos & Video
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