Avalanche: Turnagain

Location: Pete's North

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Toured up to treeline (about 2300′) on Pete’s N. Getting through the forest and alders to access this area is quite challenging and not recommended until we have more snow. The alders are close to being laid down, but they need a couple more feet.

Avalanche Details
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Trigger NaturalRemote Trigger Unknown
Avalanche Type UnknownAspect Unknown
ElevationunknownSlope Angleunknown
Crown DepthunknownWidthunknown
Vertical Rununknown  
Avalanche Details

We saw three large avalanches on surrounding peaks. The most notable was at about 3000' on the E aspect of Twin Peaks (see photos). We were too far away to really tell how large it was but I am guessing at least D 2.5. Up Lynx creek there was another very similar avalanche that released on a N aspect at 3000' in a large gully feature coming off of peak 4451' (name from the USGS topo). Finally, we saw a large mid slope release on the SW aspect of Lipps at 2800' (see photos). This crown was partially filled in and looked shallower than the two from Twin Peaks and Lynx.

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

The weather was very active today. Starting with very strong winds creating large plumes off most of the skiers side ridgelines. Then shifting towards broken skies and calm weather. Finally in the afternoon clouds moved in and heavy snowfall started at upper elevations. Thankfully the precipitation was lighter at lower elevations on our way out where it would have been raining.

Snow surface

About 2-3" of wet snow on top of a crust at the road level. This transitioned to dry snow on the surface at about 1200'. Trail breaking was about 1.5' deep from there up to our high point, with some easier sections where the surface snow had seen some wind.

Snowpack

We dug a set of pits at 2200' on a W aspect. We had some moderate and hard failures in CTs and ECTs on storm interface layers within the upper 65 cm of the snowpack. There was a 5 cm thick melt freeze crust about 80-100 cm deep that is likely from the Christmas storm. In general it seemed like the new snow above the Christmas crust was bonding fairly well.

Photos & Video
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