Turnagain Pass and Girdwood

With another day of quiet weather, triggering an avalanche in the Turnagain Pass area remains unlikely. However, even at times of LOW danger avalanches can still occur. These could be triggering a small wind slab in steep terrain, triggering a cornice fall while traveling along a ridgeline, or the sun might trigger small sluffs on steep southerly rocky terrain that warms this afternoon. 

 ________________________________________

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Avalanche Rescue Workshop at Glen Alps has been POSTPONED to Sunday, February 9th.  The workshop is free and all experience levels are welcome. Click HERE for more information.

We're on a brewery tour this week! Come out for two free evenings of conversations about the world of snow and avalanches:

• State of the Snowpack talk - Tuesday, February 4th, 6-7pm at Onsight Brewing in Anchorage. Join Dr. John Sykes and Mary Gianotti for a night of snowpack discussion at a new venue! More details HERE. 
• Forecaster Chat - Thursday, February 6th, 6-7:30 p.m. at Girdwood Brewing Co. in Girdwood. Andrew Schauer will discuss recent CNFAC research and highlight ways it can help your backcountry game. Details HERE.

What a brilliant weekend with sunshine and warm temperatures in the upper elevations. Parking lots at Turnagain Pass were at full capacity and no reports of avalanches. Today, and even tomorrow, should be equally nice. As folks continue to get into the bigger and steeper terrain, there are several things to be sure and consider. First, the snowpack in the Crow Creek area of Girdwood and the Johnson Pass/Silvertip area between Turnagain Pass and Summit Lake are suspect for harboring buried weak layers. These areas are on the periphery of the forecast zone and warrant extra caution and snowpack assessment. Second, anytime snow is on the mountains there is always some degree of avalanche hazard. Here is rundown:

Lingering Wind Slabs: Various wind slabs are scattered about from the strong northwest outflow winds last week. As always, keep a lookout for where winds have drifted snow and loading slopes. Signs of cracking in the snow around you and stiffer snow over softer snow are clues you've found a wind slab. These can be highly consequential in steep rocky terrain.

Cornices: As anyone that has been out in the mountains after January’s stormy weather knows, the cornices are big. We can’t stress enough how important it is to give these an extra wide berth. They could be easier to trigger as warm temperatures are now being seen above 2,000’ and sunshine will add to this warmth during the midday hours. They are notorious for breaking back further than expected and it’s also a good idea to limit time under them.

Sluffing in the heat of the day: It's that time of year the sun is starting to heat up the rocky terrain facing south. With such warm ambient temperatures in the Alpine currently, the sun can tip the balance in the afternoon. One group noted sun triggered sluffs in Tincan's Library yesterday.

Glide avalanches: Glide cracks are continuing to ooze open throughout the forecast areas. We are only aware of one that has released so far (south end of Seattle Ridge), but more cracks are appearing every day. These avalanches are very large and unpredictable. The best way to manage this problem is to avoid spending time under open glide cracks.

Safe Travel: As always, pay attention to the conditions in the area where you are traveling, and adjust objectives if you notice any surprising signs like shooting cracks or collapsing. You can minimize the consequences of finding an unlucky pocket of unstable snow by sticking with safe travel protocols. This includes traveling one at a time in steep terrain, watching partners from safe locations, and carrying appropriate rescue gear so you can recover if things go wrong.

Recent Avalanches: There were no avalanches reported over the weekend. The last known avalanches were on Friday when a skier triggered a wind slab in steep terrain in the Lynx Creek drainage and a snowmachiner triggered a small slab on Seattle Ridge.