| Recent Avalanches? | Yes |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | No |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | No |
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Sunburst
Toured up to Taylor Pass and then up to the weather station along the ridge.
Obvious signs of instability
Observer Comments
One large avalanche in the back corner of this hanging valley. It looked like a large cornice fall had triggered a wind slab or deeper slab. We were really far away but I would guess the debris was in the D2-3 range.
Weather
Clear and cold in the morning, with temps staying below freezing throughout the day. Calm winds. There were some layers of valley fog hanging out in the northern end of the pass for part of the day.
Snow surface
Surface hoar (1-3mm) on top of 1-3" of new snow from last night. The surface snow was dry throughout the day. The only moist snow producing wet loose was on steep southern aspects. Dry loose in steeper areas on all other aspects. There was a crust about 10 cm down in areas with southerly exposure.
Snowpack
We dug some hand pits looking for surface hoar on the face of Sunburst on the route up. We did not find any, but the snow surface was firm underneath the new snow so we could only dig down ~30cm to check. Along the ridge there were some wind loaded pockets 6-12" deep that felt hollow but did not produce any shooting cracks or small avalanches.
A wet loose from a few days ago on the left and a dry loose from today on the right. From W Face of Magnum.
One large avalanche in the back corner of this hanging valley underneath a very large cornice
Some small wind loaded areas along the ridgeline of Sunburst
A group of skiers near Pastoral
Cross loaded gully on N face of Magnum