| Recent Avalanches? | No |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | Yes |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | Yes |
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Seattle Ridge - 3,000' above Minus 1 Bowl
Tour up Seattle Ridge via the common up-track to the top of Minus 1 bowl (Warm-up Bowl).
Obvious signs of instability
Observer Comments
Several (6-7) large whumpfs just above Minus 1 bowl and on top of Repeat Offender, near where it rolls over to steeper terrain.
Shooting cracks seen above Minus 1 bowl and near the roll over on Repeat Offender.
Both collapsing and cracking was due to the weak snow under the ~2+ feet of new snow from the past 3 days.
Weather
Most cloudy and low viz with a few patches of blue.
Light snow flurries most the day.
Winds light from the NW.
Temps in the low teens.
Snow surface
10-12" of very low density powder from the past 24 hours - from parking lot to ridgetop. No wind effect, even along ridge.
Snowpack
Touchy above treeline.... The 25-30" of snow from the past 3 days has settled to around 2 feet at 3,000'. When approaching Minus 1 bowl we had a very large collapse (whumpf) and it was easy to see the layer that collapsed - the facets below the new snow (see video). While skiing along the top of Repeat Offender, we had several more large collapses. No avalanches were triggered that we are aware of.
One quick pit at 2,500' - ECTV - that means the column collapsed during isolation. Slab was fist hard on top to 4 finger near the base and facets were fist hard below.
Below the trees the new snow was just too loose to act like a slab and very deep powder skiing was required...
Bottom line: We were quite cautious due to the amount of red flags seen and didn't get onto slopes more than 35 degrees.
Cracking above Minus 1 Bowl. Slab was 2' thick with 4 finger facets below (weak layer).
Shooting cracks along Minus1 Bowl - with that impressive glide crack mid-slope...
No wind along ridge for the last 24 hours and during the last 12" of snowfall.
Looking south over Minus 1 Bowl
Around 3' of light new snow at the mid-elevations from the past several days.
Looking west from the motorized parking lot at 'rookie hill'