| Recent Avalanches? | Yes |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | No |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | No |
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Magnum
Magnum to 3300′
Obvious signs of instability
Observer Comments
Small skier triggered sluffs on Sunburst - see photo below. These didn't run too far, and weren't widespread, only occurring on steep slopes.
Light to moderate snow transport observed on a tall ridgeline/peak that lies on the west side of Seattle Creek, well north of Magnum. See photo below.
Small previous natural loose snow/slabs observed on the north aspect of Cornbiscuit and in gullies along Seattle Ridge, likely from 1/13 and 1/14.
Weather
Few -> Broken skies with high clouds
Calm at the ridgeline and parking area, but light north winds between 2000 and 3000'.
Cold at the parking lot - guessing single digits - warming up to the teens up high!
Snow surface
Surface hoar was present at low and high(elevations.... 3-6mm below 2000' and 1-3mm above 3000'. It may have been present at mid elevations but it wasn't obvious to the naked eye. Ski penetration of 4-6" at treeline, and slightly less in the alpine... 3-5"... but soft snow along the entire route!
Snowpack
Probed from 3000 - 3200' on the standard SW to W uptrack, and found the New Year's Crust was buried with slightly less snow than Tincan earlier in the weekend, but also at a more consistent depth of 40 - 50cm. Outliers ranged from 5cm near the ridgeline on a generally wind scoured bench, to 90cm in more wind protected locations.
Dug a pit at 3200', ~100' below the ridgeline at what felt to be a representative spot for PMS bowl. As observed on 1/2 at Sunburst, at this upper elevation we found the New Year's Crust to have a great deal of variation in thickness and structure even in the pit wall, and a series of melt freeze crusts and ice lenses were present - discontinuous, and occasionally with some softer faceted snow around them - now roughly between 40-80cm down from the surface. See photo below for pit results and wall structure.
Unlike Saturday's Tincan results, today the compression test that popped with the most energy was failing in small rounding facets below the New Year's Crust. This layer didn't fail at all on the second CT, perhaps due to a slightly different structure. The first CT had a more stout but thinner section of New Year's Crust over the rounding facets, while the New Year's Crust in the second CT was thicker but more fragile. This shows the variation even in the space of a pit wall... which probing also confirmed as frequent in the area.
Flagging off a peak well north of Magnum on the west side of Seattle Creek.
This pit wall photo - taken before the ECT - shows a variety of discontinuous melt freeze and ice layers below the continuous New Years Crust. Pockets of softer snow could be found surrounding these layers, and were generally continuous above and below the New Years Crust... but below that crust - 40-80cm from the surface - a lot of variation exists!
Small recent skier triggered sluffs on Sunburst.
Small but impressive surface hoar on the ridgeline at 3300'
Today's weak layer with a 'sudden collapse' fracture character... rounding facets down 45cm just below the New Years Crust!
Clouds to the south on the Magnum ridgeline, where some soft snow was present along with the 1-3mm surface hoar.