Turnagain Pass and Girdwood

While dry loose avalanches will be fast and easy to trigger, it is generally unlikely we will see any avalanches big enough to bury a person. However, there may still be isolated, stubborn pockets of unstable snow. Travel one at a time in steep terrain, keep eyes on your partners, and have exit routes planned in case you end up finding one of those unlikely places where unstable snow still lingers.

______________________________

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:

TODAY: Join CNFAC for the annual Turnagain Pass Avalanche Awareness Day from 12–4 PM at the motorized lot! In addition to free burgers and hot dogs, you can run rescue drills, chat with forecasters, and demo sleds with AMDS, Anchorage Yamaha/ Polaris. Meet the forecasters and partners from the Alaska Avalanche School, Anchorage Nordic Ski Patrol, and Alaska Search and Rescue Dogs. Come refresh your skills, talk snowpack, and eat a hot dog or three!

Recent Avalanches: There were skier-triggered avalanches on  Captain's Chair in the Lynx Creek drainage on Tuesday, and on Notch Mountain in Girdwood on Wednesday. Both of these likely failed on a weak layer of faceted snow buried roughly 1 to 1.5' deep by last week's storm.

After a full week without precipitation and very little wind, it has become unlikely that someone will be able to trigger an avalanche large enough to bury or injure a person. The trace to 2" of snow expected today and tonight is unlikely to change the avalanche equation. That doesn't mean we're ruling out all avalanches. While conditions are generally stable, there are a few things to keep in mind as you navigate the backcountry:

• Dry Loose Avalanches (sluffs) have been moving fast and quickly entraining a large volume of snow. This should be a consideration if you are traveling in steep terrain. The easiest way to manage this problem is to let your sluff run in front of you before committing to a steep slope. You can also travel across the fall line so you don't get caught as a small avalanche gains speed and volume.
• Wind Slabs that formed during periods of moderate winds may still be lingering on isolated slopes in the alpine. We haven't seen any widespread activity, but this type of avalanche can really never be ruled out. You can assess this problem by looking for relatively stiff snow sitting on top of softer snow.
• There may still be some isolated terrain where a layer of faceted snow that was buried by last week's storm may produce a Persistent Slab Avalanche today. This would happen in terrain that harbored softer, faceted snow on the surface through the February drought and wind events. If you got out during the end of February, you may remember that is a very narrow slice of terrain for most of our forecast area. The Girdwood Valley and Lynx Creek drainages are the two areas that have produced avalanches on that layer this week, and there may be some lingering pockets of unstable snow today. These are becoming less likely as the recent storm snow facets out, essentially removing the 'slab' part of the slab avalanche recipe. But it is impossible to rule out that problem entirely.

The danger is Low, but there are clearly still some things to watch out for. As always, if you want to avoid all avalanche problems, you can simply stick to low-angle terrain outside of avalanche runout zones.