| Recent Avalanches? | Yes |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | No |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | No |
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Road Obs
Drove through Turnagain Pass around 10:30am and again at 3:30pm after a tour up Sunburst. Visibility was good and we could see a few mid-storm small avalanches (D1-1.5) on specific steep terrain features as well as some debris in very steep and channeled terrain at bottom of Tincan SW face.
Many glide cracks that were visible before the New Years storm were covered and hard to see. We spotted a couple larger glide cracks opening (Lipps and Lynx Creek) and didn’t see any new glide avalanches. The glide avalanche that released on Seattle on Monday 12/31 was not visible or easy to see.
(1/3/18 at 8am) – We receive a report of a large remote triggered avalanche on Seattle creek drainage that occurred sometime yesterday (1/2.) Limited info at this time, but several folks mentioned it was 4′ deep. We are collecting more details today.
Obvious signs of instability
Observer Comments
Some blowing snow was seen along ridge tops between 1pm - 2pm, SW wind loading North aspects.
Report of a remote triggered avalanche in Seattle
Weather
Mix of rain/snow in Girdwood and Portage at sea level, up to an inch of accumulation at road level
Overcast becoming partly cloudy by the afternoon
Temps at road level were 31F and temps near ridge tops was dropping throughout the day to low 20Fs
Winds were light along the road, but winds picked up into the 20mph's for an hour or two in the afternoon along ridge tops
Snow surface
1-2" of light snow on moist melt layer at road level
Snowpack
See N. Champion's observation from Sunburst today
Some debris was seen at the bottom of steep couloirs on Tincan Proper
Storm triggered slab could be seen below Hippy Bowl on Tincan - start zone is around 2700'
Looking at Seattle Ridge from Sunburst before a short period of SW winds starting blowing some snow along ridge tops for an hour or two.
Glide crack on Lipps SW face.
View of Seattle Ridge from the entrance to Center Ridge parking area, which was not plowed as of 3:30pm yesterday
View of Seattle Ridge looking South - photo taken from CR parking area. No obvious glides cracks were visible on Seattle Ridge yesterday.
Glide cracks visible on a East facing slope near Lynx Cr
Magnum W face - some small slabs released early to mid-storm, but were challenging to see without binoculars
Eddies W face
Todd's N aspect of Tincan