Avalanche: Summit

Location: Tenderfoot

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Alaska Avalanche School Pro 1 Course; Instructors Eeva Latosuo, Blaine Smith, and Mike Janes
We skinned up the road access past the AT&T comm site to do some practice profiles “out of the rain”. The location was an open glade below some evergreens.

Avalanche Details
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Trigger UnknownRemote Trigger0
Avalanche Type UnknownAspect West
ElevationunknownSlope Angleunknown
Crown DepthunknownWidthunknown
Vertical Rununknown  
Avalanche Details

D2 slides noted in some runouts from the road between Portage and Tenderfoot. Only one D3 noted off of peak 4071' south of Hope cutoff. Poor vis, so we could not see crown, but could see pile of wet debris from roadway.

Red Flags
Red flags are simple visual clues that are a sign of potential avalanche danger. Please record any sign of red flags below.
Obvious signs of instability
Recent Avalanches?Yes
Collapsing (Whumphing)?No
Cracking (Shooting cracks)?No
Weather & Snow Characteristics
Please provide details to help us determine the weather and snowpack during the time this observation took place.
Weather

Rain snow mix at trailhead. Switched to all snow after 12:30. Snow averaged 2cm/hr, but went up to 5cm/hr at 3:30pm. Wind was generally light out of N, but ramped up to moderate at 3:30 briefly. Minimal snow transport due to sticky, moist snow.

Snow surface

Moist new snow

Snowpack

Full profile attached from one of four pits dug. Numerous other ECTP's (5-7) in buried surface hoar not noted in the profile. Also at one location an ECTP30 within the basal facets was observed (the deeper crust above the facets was 20cm thick in this test). The crusts were highly variable in thickness across the top of the slope where we dug. However, all pits had basal facets as well as buried surface hoar.

Photos & Video
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