| Recent Avalanches? | Yes |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | No |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | No |
Observation: Portage / Placer
Location: Skookum Glacier
Seward Highway up Skookum Valley/ Glacier to high point of 5K.
Obvious signs of instability
Observer Comments
Large connected avalanches in extreme terrain, WSW aspect above Skookum Valley. Older (small) slabs present lower in Skookum Valley, maybe a week or more old.
Weather
Sunny. Calm winds. Zero to 10F degrees. No new precip.
Snow surface
20-30cm low density at 2500' Pockets of 50-70cm new snow over supportable slab. Surface appeared to be mostly new precip particles w some surface hoar (laid down). Surface was all low density, soft snow from sea level to 5,000'.
Storm snow from earlier in the week appears to have settled ~6".
Snowpack
Dug a couple quick pits at ~2700' on a north aspect and a west aspect to look for bed surface/ facet/ slab combo. Could not find facets in our quick pits.
20-30cm fist hard snow over 1F/ P hard slab down ~2m. No obvious layers of concern.
Terrain progression had us ramping up slope angles throughout the day and we had opportunity to test many small test slopes with snowmachines. No cracking, collapsing or recent avalanches today.
Large, connected avalanche in extreme terrain, above Skookum Glacier. West aspect, ~2,500'.
Surface conditions ahead of 2/18 storm. Mostly precip particles and some surface hoar capping 20-30cm low density new snow.
~6" of settlement in new snow. Skookum Valley, ~500'.
Surface conditions were exceptional today!