| Recent Avalanches? | Yes |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | No |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | No |
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Magnum & Cornbiscuit
Magnum to 3500′, down a SE aspect, up Superbowl and around to the top of Cornbiscuit, then descending a north facing chute (i think it’s chute #4).
Obvious signs of instability
Observer Comments
Small (D1) recent natural loose snow avalanches initiating in rocks on southerly aspects of Magnum. Small skier triggered sluffs on steep (38+ degree) slopes. We also observed the toes of slightly larger (D1-1.5) debris piles under a steep south aspect of Cornbiscuit - likely also from loose activity, and potentially skier triggered given tracks though we couldn't see where they initiated. The debris from the Cornbiscuit slides had a different look to it, almost looking wet despite cold temperatures and no real observed impact from the sun on surfaces along our route.
Small chunks of cornice released into PMS bowl midafternoon; they may have been skier triggered with traffic along that ridge. Larger chunks from days prior were present in the Magnum PMS bowl this am, covered in a dusting of snow. Finally, a natural recent cornice fall was seen back behind Kickstep, as pictured below.
Weather
Clear and cold at the car/in the shadows - single digits! - and it felt a lot warmer on ridgelines in the sun... though weather station data makes it seem like this warm feeling may have just been the sun. Occasional light variable winds.
Snow surface
Generally ski penetration of 3-5" with some ridgelines and lower features scoured down to ~1". Winds have moved around some snow in days prior, evidenced by some texture even well below treeline, but it didn't affect ski quality much along the route. Very steep southerly terrain features evaluated at treeline in the afternoon were just barely moist, and just a thin layer of snow at the surface showed this warming.
Snowpack
No formal stability tests. Ski pole probing revealed softer snow over progressively firmer base in the top 12-18" throughout the day, with the only exception being rocky thin spots in the snowpack right along the ridgeline. A thin crust was present up to 2000' buried about 4-6" down that could be felt while skiing, but this crust too didn't affect ski quality much!
Recent cornice fall back on the ridgeline behind Kickstep
Cornice over PMS bowl of Magnum (person for scale)
Recent natural loose snow avalanches initiating in rocks on southerly aspects of Magnum
Minor sluffing on this ~38 degree north aspect of Magnum
A very thin breakable crust was generally buried by a few inches of snow below 2000' but on this small terrain feature winds had blown it clean. This was an exception for the route today!