Observation: Chugach State Park

Location: Northside of McHugh Peak

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

We toured up alongside Rabbit Creek to access the north face of McHugh Peak to observe snowpack trends in the area. The end of Canyon Road is plowed but has lots of ice and slush.

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?No
Collapsing (Whumphing)?No
Cracking (Shooting cracks)?Yes
Observer Comments

We observed shooting cracks on one rollover test slope.

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

11:15 am- Broken skies, no wind (but flagging on ridgetops from SE), no precip
12: 30 pm- Broken skies, light winds from the SE, no precip
1:00 pm- Broken skies, moderate winds from the SE, no precip
3:00 pm- Overcast skies, no winds (but flagging on ridgetops from SE), no precip

Snow surface

At lower elevations at the beginning of our tour- we observed several inches of new on top of a rain crust. The rain crust dissipated around ~2,200'.

During most of our tour, we were on light, low-density snow.

At the top of the knoll- we experienced active transport and actively forming wind slabs. We were able to get shooting cracks on a small test slope.

Snowpack

We dug one snowpit. We did not find the Thanksgiving crust in our pit (like we did last time). We found one thin layer of facets midway through the snowpack. Info for the snowpit is below:

Location: Northside of McHugh
Elevation: 2,650'
Aspect: SE
Slope: 20 degrees
Test: ECTN24 on the near-surface facet and top wind slab interface (~10" down from snow surface).

Photos & Video
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