Turnagain Pass and Girdwood
Peligro de aludes
Lo esencial
A welcome change to the pattern is in store today with a few inches of new snow in the forecast. This should not affect the danger and human-triggered avalanches remain unlikely, unless the east wind picks up earlier than expected. There is always a chance we could get surprised by a small avalanche in steep, upper elevation, rocky terrain and conditions are slick almost everywhere so travel cautiously. There has been a lack of recent glide activity, but continue to limit time underneath glide cracks as they are completely unpredictable.
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Avalanche Discussion
Precipitation is showing up on the radar this morning so it looks like 2 to 4" of snow could fall through the day with ridgetop southeast wind at 10 to 20 mph. Easterly wind is forecast to increase this evening to 30 to 35 mph. Look for blowing snow and avoid places where it is being deposited if strong wind arrives early.
Conditions should be mostly the same today as previous days except it should be snowing lightly creating dust on crust. Places where we could trigger a surprise avalanche, despite the danger being Low, are just below ridgelines in steep and rocky terrain. There is weak faceted snow sitting underneath old wind slabs, which may not give any feedback like a shooting crack. Normally, we look for wind slabs by looking for firm snow over softer snow, but this set up exists almost everywhere right now after 3 weeks of no new snow and some wind. Choose terrain with a clean runout and travel one at a time on steep slopes to help reduce chances of injury if we get suprised today.
Glide Avalanches: We haven't heard any reports of glide avalanches recently, but they are unpredictable, so continue to keep an eye on visible cracks and limit time spent underneath them.