Avalanche: Hatcher Pass

This is an addition to Joe Kurtak's observation on March 17, 2019. The avalanche he observed on a NW aspect of the Marmot chutes was triggered by a cornice break on the ridge just past the weather station on Marmot. We were a party of two skinning up the south side of Marmot starting at Fishhook parking. As we approached the ridge line at around 11.15am to observe what seemed to be a small crown in the NW chutes, a cornice broke off under my feet. Because of deceiving low light and our focus on the wrong thing (observing a crown) I didn't realize how close I got to the edge. The cornice broke off under my feet with me standing about 8ft away from the edge. I just about managed to leap onto safety from the moving snow. We didn't know whether or not the cornice triggered an avalanche on its way down until we read Mr. Kurtak's report. Because of howling SE winds we couldn't hear any indication that it did. Though from our safe observation point just a little higher up the ridge of the break, we could see a small crown possibly triggered by the cornice.