Avalanche: Turnagain

Location: Tincan

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Did a quick round of road obs, and then went to Tincan up to 2500′ for a couple of laps through the trees.

Many trees are overloaded with snow, and the warm temps are helping them shed. Large dense blocks are falling from trees and would be quite painful if someone were to get hit by them. Additionally, tree wells are quite deep and the shedding snow is only making them deeper.

Sorry about the images! The camera lens and/or sensor needs to be cleaned before further use.

Avalanche Details
If this is an avalanche observation, click yes below and fill in the form as best as you can. If people were involved, please provide details.
Trigger UnknownRemote Trigger Unknown
Avalanche Type UnknownAspect Unknown
ElevationunknownSlope Angleunknown
Crown DepthunknownWidthunknown
Vertical Rununknown  
Avalanche Details

Multiple recent avalanches
Small slab on Tincan's CFR, and another slab in a gully on Seattle Ridge near the moto lot (see attached photos).
See Thomas/Predeger ob for large avalanches on Lipps and CNFAIC staff for Girdwood area avalanches.

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)?Yes
Observer Comments

Recent avalanches. Cracking in wind loaded areas.

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

Broken skies, visibility was in and out.
We felt light but quite consistent winds from the South throughout our tour.

Snow surface

10 inches of new snow. It was surprisingly low density given the relatively warm temperatures. Above treeline recent winds have been strong enough to drift the new snow and create fresh (soft) wind slabs.

Snowpack

We only dug hand pits today. In general, the recent storm snow would take moderate force to shear on an interface between storms (but in some cases we would just pull through the new snow before it broke).

Wind loaded areas gave us the greatest cause for concern today. At 2000' & 2400' multiple hand pits would fail on isolation where a soft windslab (5cm thick @2000', 10cm thick @2400') overlaid low density new snow. Near 2500', another party had skied over a small wind lip where a windslab released and propagated about 25 feet across. (See photo)

There seemed to be some sort of storm interface where small chunks of slab would release about a foot deep on unsupported slope features. See photos.

Photos & Video
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