| Trigger | Natural | Remote Trigger | 0 |
| Avalanche Type | Hard Slab | Aspect | Northeast |
| Elevation | 3500ft | Slope Angle | unknown |
| Crown Depth | 3ft | Width | 1000ft |
| Vertical Run | 3000ft |
Avalanche: Girdwood
Location: Raggedbowl
Toured up to Raggedbowl to get a look at a recent large avalanche and to see how the snowpack is doing. The snowpack is thin and weak, and numerous persistent weak layers exist that are reactive in stability tests.
Avalanche Details
Natural avalanche in Ragged bowl. Ran past the moraine, ~1/2 mile. There is a section of snow in the middle that did not slide, so this is really 3 or 4 large avalanches that ran at the same time or sympathetically. Debris was very hard.
Obvious signs of instability
| Recent Avalanches? | Yes |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | No |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | No |
Snow surface
~3" of faceted snow sits on a 1-2" melt freeze crust to about 2200', where the surface transitions to various wind affected surfaces: scoured to melt-freeze crust in some places, 6+" wind slab in other places, 2-3" breakable wind crust in lots of places.
Snowpack
Recent strong NE winds have left the snowpack highly variable above treeline. In some places it has been scoured down to tundra or basal ice, and several yards away the snowpack is 250 cm deep.
Dug a pit at 2000', SE aspect, 29 degree slope. HS = 140 cm. CT14 SP, ECTP24 down 65 cm on January 21 buried surface hoar and facets. The buried surface hoar was remarkably intact compared to what is found in Turnagain Pass. CT8 SC down 85 cm on moist 1-2 mm facets.
The debris flowed well past the moraine bump in the bowl, ~1/2 mile.
Closer look at the avalanche.
In this closer shot, you can see the slick bed surface, likely the melt-freeze crust we are finding below a layer of loose facets.
A different perspective showing the extent of the debris.
The wind has scoured many places down to tundra or basal ice, and heavily loaded others.
Wet loose slides on west aspects of Surprise Bowl.
Another perspective of the avalanche.
Heavy stripping and cross loading in the Crow Pass area.
Goat Mtn
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