Turnagain Pass and Girdwood

Lawinenprobleme

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  Persistent Slabs

  N

  NE

  E

  SE

  S

  SW

  W

  NW

  • Hochgebirge
  • Waldgrenze
  • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze

  Wahrscheinlichkeit

  Unlikely

  Größe

  1–2

  Recent Avalanches: Last Friday, there was an avalanche fatality near Lake George.  This is Northeast of the Girdwood Valley and is outside of our forecast areas. We did get reports of small, wet-loose activity in the Tincan Creek area yesterday as the sun continues to add energy to the surface.  Many natural and human-triggered avalanches 1-2' deep occurred in the few days following the most recent storm. One of these buried and injured a person on Max's Mountain in Girdwood on March 21st.

  It is becoming less likely to trigger a persistent slab avalanche in the Turnagain Pass/ Girdwood areas, but given the poor structure that we know to exist in the top 2' of the snowpack, we are not dealing with a low danger avalanche problem.  The bed surface, weak layer, slab setup is easy to suss out with a quick hand pit or pole probe and is the exact recipe for a persistent slab avalanche.  Fortunately, thousands of tracks across the advisory indicate that the likelihood of triggering a slab avalanche is on the low end of the scale, but persistent slab avalanche problems should always give us pause, because the vast majority of serious and fatal avalanche accidents involve persistent weak layers.  

  The best way to manage this avalanche problem while still enjoying steep, springtime skiing is to obsess over consequences.  This is the time of year when we're traveling further afield and looking at loftier objectives before fully embracing dirt and river season.  It is also the time of year when we tend to see more serious and fatal avalanche accidents.  Ask yourself: if this slope I am on were to slide, where would the snow take me?  Look for open, planar slopes that don't terminate in a terrain trap such as a gully, cliffs, or thick alder.  As always, continue to maintain safe travel protocols by exposing only one person at a time in avalanche terrain (ascent and descent) and resist the urge to help your buddy unstick their machine mid-slope.  

  Dry Loose Snow Avalanches: Steep northerlies are still holding cold, dry snow.  Sluffs are easy to trigger in steep terrain today and will be fast-moving.

  

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  Loose Wet

  N

  NE

  E

  SE

  S

  SW

  W

  NW

  • Hochgebirge
  • Waldgrenze
  • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze

  Wahrscheinlichkeit

  Possible

  Größe

  1–2

  Daytime temperatures are slowly creeping higher each day.  Ridgetops are still below freezing, but we can expect continued wet-loose avalanche activity, particularly at and below treeline.  Remember, the same poor structure is fairly uniform across elevation bands, and wet-loose activity down low could be enough to gouge into buried facets and initiate a slab avalanche.