| Recent Avalanches? | Yes |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | No |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | No |
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Magnum NW ridge
Skinned up the Standard route on Magnum’s NW ridge to about 2800′
Obvious signs of instability
Observer Comments
Wind loading on Seattle Ridge until about 11:30am from a NW wind direction.
Recent natural avalanche on Seattle Ridge above Granite Creek camp ground.
Weather
Clear skies
Cold, but inverted. 15F at road, 20's at higher elevations
Winds on Magnum were from the East, 10mph
No Precip
Snow surface
1000'- 1500' - 1cm surface hoar and near surface facets
1600'-2800' - near surface faceting where snow was loose or a thin (5mm) wind skin in areas exposed to wind
Snowpack
At road level there is 10" of snow
10-20" of snow until about 2000'
*Snowpack is thin along the NW shoulder of Magnum, 10-20" total. Found a thin crust near the ground in all hand pits, but only found the buried surface hoar layer in a few hand pits along the ridge. Probed around onto the West face and found a deeper snow pack, A 100-130cm (3-4 ft.) Dug a pit at 2545' and found the buried surface hoar 15"(40cm) below the surface. Pit showed poor structure and tests still indicate propagation potential, but required strong force. CT23, ECTP25, ECTP28 (SC)
The first 12" (30cm) of snow near the ground was still moist melt freeze grains... likely the reason glides are active right now.
Natural avalanche activity on Seattle Ridge, above Granite Creek camp ground.
A skier triggered avalanche on Sunburst SW face was reported(11/23) to have released when skier was well onto the slab. Notice the many tracks where this particular slope had been skied previously.
Glide avalanche on Sunburst's SW face that released yesterday 11/23. It also triggered a small slab just below it. Note the large crack lookers right that hasn't released yet.
View of the entire Sunburst SW face with all of the recent activity from this week.
The two avalanches on Tincan SW aspect. (triggered remotely on 11/22 or 11/23)
Pieces of the buried surface hoar from the pit above. Grid width of card is 3mm.
1cm tall surface hoar at 1300' on Sunburst