Avalanche: Hatcher Pass

Location: Lower Microdot

Date:

January 24, 2023 9:17pm

Observer:

Barker /Workman Forecaster

Route & General Observations

Road obs and toured up to lower Microdot to assess amount of new snow and wind overnight and document recent avalanches.

Avalanche Details

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Trigger	Natural	Remote Trigger	Unknown
Avalanche Type	Soft Slab	Aspect	East
Elevation	3700ft	Slope Angle	unknown
Crown Depth	unknown	Width	unknown
Vertical Run	unknown

Avalanche Details

Observed numerous small, natural avalanches today. The light was poor but most looked like storm slabs with a few thin wind slabs. Avalanches were all D1 and were observed on the East face of Skyscraper, SW face of Marmot above the lodge, Sunnyside of Hatch, N face of 4068' (this needs to be verified) and Martin Mine. The majority of the naturals were at 3500' and above where more snow accumulated during the storm.

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

I observed numerous small naturals today on all aspects. I did not travel on or near steep terrain nor did I travel far and therefore did not experience any collapsing or cracking. It was challenging enough driving up the road!

Weather & Snow Characteristics

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

Weather

New snow:
9-12" of new snow with 1.5" SWE reported at IM (3550') in the last 24hrs.
7" of new snow with .7" SWE reported at Frostbite (2770') in the past 24 hrs.
Ground truth : I measured approximately 7" new at Goldmint and up to 12" near IM.
Wind:
SSE G 25-30 mph for 14 hours on Jan 23/24
Plumes were observed at ridge top today gusting SE 30-39 mph for 5 hours.
Temps at noon:
27deg @ 4500'
27deg @ 3550'
28deg @ 2770'

Snow surface

The new snow is dense and upside down with a couple new hard to identify brittle drizzle crusts.
Travel uphill is slow and downhill is even slower but at least we got snow!

Snowpack

see pit

Photos & Video

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