Central and Eastern Chugach

Was able to go along on a flight recon of recent avalanche activity through a lot of terrain to the East of our forecast area.  As well as through our Continental zone forecast area.  The pattern of avalanche distribution was fairly well defined.  In Maritime zones there were few recent large slab avalanches that were observed.  

As we moved North of the Miles Glacier, large persistent slab avalanches were more prevalent as we entered into a more Intermountain snow climate zone, but were still spotty and lower in distribution than the Thompson Pass road corridor.  The Wernicke valley was where avalanches became apparent.  This line was consistent as you moved west towards Thompson Pass.    Some avalanches were observed in low angle terrain, including Hatchet Land.  In the Intermountain zone we did not observe any avalanches stepping down to the December facets (basal snow).

In the Continental zone, natural slab avalanches became less prevalent than in the intermountain zone.  This is likely due to less loading, not a lack of a persistent weak layer.  The few avalanches we saw in the Continental zone were deep slabs and were observed in Clueland, Billy Mitchell, and Upper Stuart Creek.

The Thompson Pass area had the highest concentration of large persistent slab avalanches in all the zones we observed.  Naturals were observed on all aspects at mid and upper elevations.

Numerous large natural avalanches