Observation: Turnagain

Location: Sunburst / Taylor Pass

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Sunburst ridge to weather station and back through Taylor creek. High point 3,800′.

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

No big signs. Roller balls on south facing slopes. Surface warming was limited today with broken cloud cover.

One dark streak off the Library on Tincan. Possibly a new smaller glide or small full depth release. Photo below.

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

Melt-freeze grains below 2,500'. Daytime heating was just enough to melt the top 1-2" of the surface by 3pm - limited surface warming. Below 1,500', punchy soft wet and saturated snow.
Above 2,500', moist new snow (4" to 8" of dense new snow).
Only dry surface snow found was on north aspects above 3,500'. This was highly wind affected.

Snowpack

Above 2,500', moist new snow that was showing signs of good bonding on south, east and westerly aspects. No good opportunities to dig on North (north aspects along Sunburst have heavy wind effect and stripping). High elevation northerlies are the most concerning for harboring a reactive faceted layer 1-2' down. It was good to see there were no signs of recent slab avalanches in these areas (i.e., Todd's Bowl, Pastoral, Basketball Chute, Seattle Headwall).

Photos & Video
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