Avalanche: Portage / Placer

Location: Placer Valley

Date:

April 8, 2024 6:27pm

Observer:

Dalpes/ Wagner Forecaster

Route & General Observations

We rode out to Spencer Glacier to check out surface conditions in the Placer Valley. The river is opening up and there were limited easy crossing opportunities. I watched one wet loose avalanche occur at about 500’ on a steep southwest facing slope. On my drive back to the south there was new wet loose activity and a new glide avalanche on a southeast facing slope at about 1,500’ on Seattle Ridge.

Avalanche Details

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Trigger	Natural	Remote Trigger	Unknown
Avalanche Type	Wet Loose Snow	Aspect	Southwest
Elevation	1000ft	Slope Angle	unknown
Crown Depth	unknown	Width	unknown
Vertical Run	unknown

Avalanche Details

I observed a wet loose avalanche on a steep southwest facing slope that had a lot of exposed rocks.

Red Flags

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Obvious signs of instability

Recent Avalanches?	Yes
Collapsing (Whumphing)?	No
Cracking (Shooting cracks)?	No

Observer Comments

wet loose activity

Weather & Snow Characteristics

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

Weather

Clear skies and calm wind in the valley. Temperatures likely reached 40 F where we were travelling below 500’.

Snow surface

We began our ride at around noon, so the surface was softening after a hard freeze the night before. By 3pm when we started to head back towards the trailhead, we found some really warm snow at about 500’ on a south facing slope with knee deep boot penetration, yikes. Close to the glacier we found some surface hoar that was melting in the sun.

Snowpack

We didn’t dig any formal pits. There were many recent wet loose avalanches on east, south, and west facing slopes. The knee-deep boot penetration was a clear sign that the snowpack at that elevation was becoming weak and we needed to move to a colder aspect to find more stable conditions.

Photos & Video

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