Bulletin d’avalanche

Turnagain Pass and Girdwood

Chugach National Forest Avalanche Center
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Danger d’avalanche

Sat
Alpin
2 · Modéré
Limite forestière
2 · Modéré
Sous la limite
Sans niveau
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Périmé — ce bulletin a expiré 2 years ago. Vous consultez des conditions passées, pas le bulletin en cours.

Points saillants

Human triggered avalanches 1-2' deep are possible today within the new snow that fell this week. Due to a lack of recent observations from high elevations, we have a high degree of uncertainty about how sensitive these surface snow avalanches will be. We recommend easing into steeper terrain and assessing the stability of the new snow, especially in wind loaded areas. Glide avalanches also continue to be a concern and we recommend avoiding glide cracks if possible. 

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Special Announcements

Looking to dust off your rescue skills? Hatcher Pass Avalanche Center is hosting a free avalanche rescue workshop next Saturday, December 14 at the Hatcher Pass – Fishhook (Marmot) Lot. Visit hpavalanche.org for more info. 

Problèmes avalancheux

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpin
    • Limite forestière
    • Sous la limite forestière
    Probabilité
    Possible
    Taille
    1–2

    Today might be the first good chance to get into higher elevation terrain and take advantage of all the new snow that has fallen during the prolonged warm and stormy weather pattern. Since we have little recent information from higher elevations we recommend assessing avalanche terrain carefully before committing to steep slopes. The strong winds over the past two days have probably formed wind slabs 1-2' deep along ridgelines and convex terrain features. You can evaluate how sensitive wind slabs are to the weight of a skier or rider by jumping on small test slopes and looking for shooting cracks or small avalanches.  

    Storm snow avalanches are also possible in areas that received 10" or more of new snow in the past 48 hours, like the north end of Turangain Pass, Girdwood, and Portage. That means you could trigger an avalanche in an area that is not wind loaded. Quick stability tests like ski pole probing, hand pits, and jumping on test slopes are a great way to evaluate how well the new snow is bonding to the old snow underneath. 

    Rough guess at snowfall storm totals above 2,500' (7pm Tuesday to 6am Friday):

    Girdwood Valley:  20 to 24"Portage Valley:  30 to 50"Turnagain Pass:  12 to 16"Summit Lake:  2 to 4 " Seward/Lost Lake:  10 to 16"

     

  • Glide Cracks

    • Alpin
    • Limite forestière
    • Sous la limite forestière
    Probabilité
    Possible
    Taille
    2–3

    Glide avalanches continue to plague our forecast areas. These large and destructive avalanches release spontaneously and are widespread in the Turnagain Pass forecast zone. The best practice is to avoid traveling underneath glide cracks as much as possible and if you need to travel underneath one consider spreading out to limit the exposure of your group. We know you are tired of hearing about glide avalanches and we are also tired of writing about them. However, they will continue to be one of our main concerns until we stop observing glide avalanche releases. 

    Recent glide release on the S face of Tincan.

    Photo: Daniel Krueger

Régions couvertes