Observation: Turnagain

03/23/12
Observers: Sean Fallon Nick Jenkins
Location: Silver Tip Area

Weather:
Sky- Mostly Cloudy with occasional sucker holes
Wind- Calm
Temp- 30f with strange moments of much warmer temps when the sun would poke
through
Precip- light snow all day

Signs of Instability:
Witnessed skier triggered avalanche on south face of Eddies
Rapidly warming temps
Large roller balls, long running sluffs
One small collapse near tree line
Hollow wind slab sounds at the ridge

Surface Conditions:
6-12 inches of new snow. Cold in the am then very warm thick and

Comments and Concerns:
Very odd day for decision-making. On the skin up, the snow was deep and blower.
Dug a pit at about 2400 ‘ on a 35 degree NE aspect. The snow in our pit looked great,
right-side up and good bonding at the new snow interface. Got an ECTX. But when we go
to the ridge, at about 2pm, the sun came out and changed the surface snow dramatically.
We were going to ski a NE aspect towards the highway, but got spooked off by hollow wind
slabs at the top of the gully and poor bonding of the new snow on the wind slab. Then we
looked at a SW aspect in the sun but we took too long to ski it and when we were about to
drop in I witnessed nearly the entire slope roller ball out. Before we ripped skins the snow
looked cold and great. The 15 minutes later when we were about to drop the snow
seemingly instantly got too warm and thick. We got spooked off our second choice due to
how thick and warm the storm snow turned. We ended up skiing smaller NE facing gullies
through the trees. On our way out of the pass, we stopped at Tincan where a friend
explained he saw a skier trigger a significant slide on the south face of Eddies. The powder
cloud travelled nearly to the valley floor. He said he the skier was not caught and booted
back up to the ridge. I could see about 4 turns leading to a 50-100 foot wide crown. This
slide confirmed some of my apprehensiveness.