Avalanche: Turnagain

Location: Tincan

Date:

February 19, 2020 7:46pm

Observer:

H. Thamm / R. Van Luit Forecaster

Route & General Observations

Standard uptrack

We broke trail in knee deep heavy powder and skied the skin track out most of the way. The snow was so resistant we couldn’t make turns on slopes less than about 30 degrees.

Avalanche Details

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Trigger	Unknown	Remote Trigger	Unknown
Avalanche Type	Unknown	Aspect	North
Elevation	3200ft	Slope Angle	unknown
Crown Depth	24in	Width	unknown
Vertical Run	unknown

Avalanche Details

We caught a glimpse of a small avalanche on the north aspect of Sunburst, in Elevator. The crown was sharp enough that we both suspected it was recent. It appeared to be fairly shallow, from 1'-2' deep and we couldn't tell how far it ran vertically. I couldn't pick up any definition with a photo.

Weather & Snow Characteristics

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

Weather

Mid 20's - low 30's °F
Mostly cloudy with occasional openings
Calm winds all day

Visibility was obscured in the morning and the road was white - I drove past the Tincan lot twice before I noticed passing it. It was unplowed at the time and partially plowed when we returned at 3p.

Snow surface

60cm (2') of dense powder
Trees and shrubs were caked with snow on the windward side

Snowpack

60cm (2') of new snow showed no signs of slab character, even though it was relatively dense. We found the rain line/melt freeze crust disappear between 1500'-1600' in this location. The crust was 1-2cm (1") thick and 30-50cm (12-20") below the surface.
Multiple hand shears showed no notable results.

Tincan Testpit
2170'
SE aspect
Ski/boot pen: 40cm/60cm
HS200cm
ECTX (X2)
However! We did get ECTP32 & ECTP35, both ↓90cm on 1-2mm facets (MLK)

Photos & Video

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