South Fork of Eagle River, Chugach State Park
Weather
- Air Temp
- -5
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Rain Elevation
- 140 Montgomery Way
- Recent Snowfall
- 10
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Overcast skies and valley fog when we started the tour that lifted to broken skies the deeper we got back in the South Fork of Eagle River. Some passing light snow flurries but mostly no precipitation. No wind.
Snowpack
No formal snowpits were dug. We did notice ~5" of new snow on top of either bare ground or old wind-drifted snow. Snow depths varied greatly- and were deepest in gullies and high alpine bowls. We did not see new natural avalanche activity from this weekend's weather events. other than small surface-level wind slab activity. That being said, there is a fair amount of snow available for transport right now with high winds from the north in the forecast can make surprisingly big avalanches in the Chugach State Park.
Avalanche
Went and looked at the debris piles from Death Bowls on the South Fork of Eagle River. We looked at the first five gullies. All were in the D2 to D2.5 range. The biggest debris pile was ~12 feet deep and one to two school buses wide. Most of the slide paths ended around the old lateral moraine bench. It looked like from the debris pile it was a mix of old wind slab avalanche and wet slab avalanche debris.