Avalanche: Turnagain

Location: Sunburst

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Toured up the standard West Ridge to 3700′ late afternoon to look at how the sun was warming the snow surface. Temperatures were in the mid 40s F in the upper elevations. Numerous wet loose avalanches were seen in very steep South facing terrain of the Library and Tincan Proper. Some rollerball were seen on SE and SW aspects near rocks and some ski tracks. We descended Sunburst SW face at 4:30pm and found 1cm moist surface snow that became a 1cm crust as soon as you hit the shade line. In Taylor Creek, lower angle terrain the surface snow was still dry.

Avalanche Details
If this is an avalanche observation, click yes below and fill in the form as best as you can. If people were involved, please provide details.
Trigger NaturalRemote Trigger0
Avalanche Type Wet Loose SnowAspect South
ElevationunknownSlope Angleunknown
Crown DepthunknownWidthunknown
Vertical Rununknown  
Red Flags
Red flags are simple visual clues that are a sign of potential avalanche danger. Please record any sign of red flags below.
Observer Comments

Wet loose avalanches on steep South aspects, especially in terrain with rocks.

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

Sunny and clear
Sunburst wx station reached 47F at 4pm
Road level 30s F
Calms winds
No Precip

Snow surface

5-6" dry snow (near surface facets) on West and North aspects
Wet surface snow on steep due South aspects
Moist surface snow (~1cm) on 30+ degree SW aspects by 3pm, was previously dry. Quickly formed a crust as soon as it was shaded.

Snowpack

Dug a test pit at 3700', SW aspect, HS=<320cm, Pit height= 115cm, 34* slope
CT13x2, ECTN15 failed 20cm below surface on .5mm facets/decomposing fragments
Didn't find the MLK layer within the top 115cm

Photos & Video
Please upload photos below. Maximum of 5 megabytes per image. Click here for help on resizing images. If you are having trouble uploading please email images separately to staff.