Turnagain Pass and Girdwood

It looks like Christmas will be the last day of our impressive December deep freeze and drought. Human-triggered avalanches remain unlikely—but not impossible—on steep, wind-loaded slopes in the alpine. Travel conditions are challenging, so bring an extra measure of caution if you're heading out for a Christmas tour. Glide avalanche activity has slowed substantially, but continue to minimize time spent underneath visible glide cracks.

___________________________________

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:

We rely on the support of the Friends of the Chugach Avalanche Center to operate. When you make a donation to the Friends, your contribution makes these forecasts possible. If you haven't already done so, please consider becoming a member in December! We rely heavily on public support to keep us running and would like to send a big THANK YOU to everyone who has donated, past and present!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

If you had snow on your wish list this holiday season, it looks like your wish might just come true this weekend. After a three-week dry spell, the weather forecast is finally calling for new snow starting Friday and continuing through the weekend. The snowfall amounts are nothing to write home about, with 2 to 4" (0.25" water)expected on Friday and up to 5 to 8" (0.5" water) total by Sunday evening, but at this point we will take whatever we can get!

For today, we are still dealing with a low danger setup where the main hazard is the challenging travel conditions. Yesterday's winds were gusty, but the average wind speed stayed relatively light in the Turangain Pass and Girdwood area. There is a chance of finding a small wind slab at upper elevations sitting on top of a weak sugary layer, which could cause a human-triggered avalanche. You can look for recently wind-loaded slopes and check for shooting cracks or collapsing on test slopes to help assess how sensitive these wind slabs are. As always, we recommend travelling one at a time in avalanche terrain and spotting your partner, just in case you find the wrong spot and trigger a small avalanche. 

Glide Avalanches: The frequency of glide avalanches has slowed down significantly in the past two weeks. However, these avalanches are unpredictable and very destructive, so we recommend minimizing your time underneath glide cracks as a precaution.