The avalanches and cornice fall all occurred during the 18-19th avalanche cycle and not in the past couple of days.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Wolverine
West rib of Wolverine to 1800ft via Sharkfin.
We saw numerous older (2+ days)* avalanches, including one that seemed to be triggered by a large cornice fall, ran 400 feet on a 28-32deg slope before hitting several large trees, breaking branches.
*see forecaster note below.
Forecaster Comments
Weather
Humid and 20's, light winds, overcast with intermittent flurries
Snow surface
5-10" of new snow over a dense base
Ridges were blown almost to dirt
Snowpack
We dug a pit just outside an old (2+ days?) avalanche path, in an area representative of our intended ski route.
1400ft ASL, West aspect, 28 degree slope
Snow depth 200cm, pit depth 120cm
Shovel tilt, 3 taps, new/old snow interface shifted but didn't slide
CT12, 10cm down on new/old snow interface (see shovel tilt test pic)
ECTX -shovel pry- 80cm down on an hard crust layer
1 of several large pieces of cornice that stopped mid-slope
some of the trees hit by the cornice triggered avalanche
2-5ft of avalanche depris piled up around trees.
digging a pit at 1400ft, 28deg slope
Shovel Tilt test, we were not expecting a result.
the pit wall