Observation: Turnagain

Here are some notes from a conversation with Andy Moderow who went to Tincan on Christmas Day:

Route: Tincan common to the dog leg above treeline just before the final part to the top (3000’ ish).

Red flags: Two recent glide avalanches on Seattle Ridge. One across from Sunburst and the other on the north end of the ridge. Numerous glide cracks opening on Seattle Ridge and a few on Wolverine as well. Note, these are a lot longer than the ones observed last weekend.

One large whumpf around 2,900′. Broke trail above treeline without any cracking or collapsing, EXCEPT one giant whumpf when we started skiing down into the edge of common bowl ( just above that dog leg in the skin track, our high point ). I was the skier and didn’t hear it, but on the ridge one of my group AND a party about 100 yards up the skin track both said they ”felt it drop” and heard it as well (on the skin track that is usually wind scoured).

Wondering if the collapse was the new old interface from the soft snow pre- storm. You could feel a few layers ski pole probing above treeline – one thinner and one about 2-3’ down above treeline – and that lower soft layer was under the firmer storm layer.

There was some debris from mid storm avalanches in the Seattle Ridge gullies – but light was fairly flat all day – and couldn’t see any signs of crowns or where they came from. Photo of debris below gives an idea of volume and length in a few neighboring paths.

Otherwise, signs of small mid storm avalanches on the side of Jerome’s Dome. Unfortunately, light was flat and we could have missed some more subtle things.

Finally, thick crust at 1000’ under a few inches of soft snow, disappeared by 1600’. And great skiing!