Turnagain Pass and Girdwood

Conditions are generally stable in the Girdwood/Turnagain Pass zone, and it is unlikely that a person will trigger an avalanche today. However, there may be isolated pockets of unstable snow where someone could still trigger a small avalanche. As always, expose only one person at a time to steep terrain, watch your partners from safe spots outside of runout zones, and have an exit route planned in case you find one of those lingering pockets.

Recent Avalanches: The last avalanches in the Girdwood/Turnagain Pass zone were last week on Captain's Chair in the Lynx Creek drainage, and on Notch Mountain in Girdwood. Both of these likely failed on a weak layer of faceted snow buried roughly 1 to 1.5' deep.

The Girdwood/Turnagain Pass zone has remained largely protected from the outflow winds that have impacted much of the rest of our forecast area since the last major precipitation event on March 6. While there may be some terrain along the fringes of the Turnagain Pass zone with lingering Wind Slab concerns (see this observation from Peak 4940, for example), conditions should be generally stable for the majority of the zone. 

Even though avalanches are unlikely, we can't rule them out entirely. If you are traveling in steep terrain, it is important to maintain safe travel protocol to mitigate the consequences of triggering an avalanche. This includes traveling one at a time in steep terrain, watching your partners from safe spots outside of avalanche runout zones, and having an escape route planned before committing to a steep slope.

Dry loose avalanches in steep terrain remain likely wherever there is soft snow on the surface. These have been running fast and are very easy to trigger.