Observation: Turnagain

Location: Tincan

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Normal uptrack to Common Bowl. Evidence of a storm slab that release mid-late storm on CFR. Visibility was in/out later in the day. Spoke with a group who saw debris from the storm at bottom of Todds run. Spoke with a group who had a whumpf on Sunburst around ~3000′ off of West ridge and saw evidence of D2 on North aspect of Magnum. Not much snow below 1500′.

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)?Yes
Cracking (Shooting cracks)?No
Observer Comments

Recent avalanche activity from mid-late storm, all D1's. Not the greatest vis in the afternoon. Spoke with a group who noted debris at the bottom of Todds from mid storm. Also spoke to a group who went up Sunburst and could see an older crown and debris (size D2) on Northern chute on Magnum and said gully had reloaded.

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

Broken skies becoming obscured in the alpine in the afternoon
Temps at 1000': 28F
Temps at 3000': 15F
Light NE winds
No precip observed

Snow surface

1000' - 1" and patchy melt/freeze crust w/ light dusting of new snow
2500' - 2" of loose snow on m/f crust
3000' - 6" of 4F+ loose snow

Snowpack

Snowpack changes drastically with elevation. Very little snow below 1500' and snowpack gradually increasing to 5' at 3000'. We found a very strong snowpack below 2500' with a crust forming near the surface from recent rain. The snowpack is pretty moist in this elevation band and we also found moist 2mm facets on the ground below a crust at 2500'. Rain runnels were visible to 2500'. The crust below the loose snow surface gradually disappears around 2700'.

Probed around from 3000' to 3200'. Snowpack is variable 4'-5' feet near the top of Common bowl. We dug two pits with no remarkable test results except one CT30 failing 75cm (30") below the surface on buried surface from 11/23. The buried surface hoar was laying down in pit wall, but was 6-8cm on average. There was two 1cm melt/freeze crusts 14" and 18" below the surface. This indicates two periods of warming temps where wet snow fell mid storm at this elevation. We dug two pits side by side. See photo diagram below.

Photos & Video
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