Avalanche: Turnagain

Location: Lynx Creek

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Up to about 2100′ in the main drainage. Mostly stayed in the valley bottom and small terrain features near treeline.

Avalanche Details
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Trigger NaturalRemote Trigger Unknown
Avalanche Type UnknownAspect East
Elevation 3000ftSlope Angleunknown
Crown DepthunknownWidthunknown
Vertical Rununknown  
Avalanche Details

Natural avalanche probably triggered by wind. Had wider propagation than would be expected for a wind slabs so there might have been some kind of weak layer that was triggered by wind loading. Didn't look deep enough to be on the facet/crust layer.

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)?Yes
Observer Comments

Some shooting cracks in wind loaded areas. Mostly in the top 20-30cm of snow.

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

Clear skies and temps in the teens. We did not see as much wind transport as expected. Only a few areas with flagging on ridgetops. Calm winds in the valley bottom.

Snow surface

Mix of settled snow and wind transported snow. Some wind drift were up to 3' deep.

Snowpack

We dug a couple pits at 2100' on a NE aspect. Total snow depth was about 210cm. The upper snowpack was right side up and had mostly one finger snow above the faceted weak layer. We saw a layer of decomposing new snow about 15 down that could have been the weak layer that helped the wind slab propagate widely ECTN 11 & 12. The facets were buried 105 to 115 cm. No results on two ECTs.

Photos & Video
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