Willow Creek

Hands down, the busiest day at Hatcher Pass so far this winter. Skeetawk was jamming, nearly every parking lot from Lower 16 mile to Independence Mine was full with skiers, riders, snowmachines, cross-country skiers, and snowshoers. And what a beautiful day for it. Partly sunny skies, a sun with some warmth and length to it, calm winds, and soft snow. 

Conducted a couple quick UAS flights on our way up the pass, one to investigate a natural avalanche in Marmot Gully 1, and another to the back of the Valley of Sin to get some images of several wind and persistent slab avalanches triggered naturally during the most recent natural cycle. 

We took advantage of the great visibility to take the sleds for a rip to the west side of the pass and have a look at coverage and recent activity. While we found decent coverage, we stuck mostly to the valley bottoms. We traveled to the back of Upper Willow Creek and observed a large, recent, natural persistent slab avalanche that likely released sometime overnight on the 27th/28th. The avalanche was 2-3' deep, about 300' wide, and ran about 400 vertical feet.

Combined with yesterday's remote-triggered avalanche on Microdot, our hackles were up when approaching steep terrain. We descended back to the road and took the trail to the mouth of Craggie Creek. Coverage on Bald Mountain Ridge looked good from afar, but it appears to get thinner as you move away from the forecast area. 

 

Observed one recent natural avalanche, likely from the previous natural cycle overnight on the 27th/28th.

While we mostly rode in the valley bottoms, we found the snow to be soft but supportable. Observed some isolated wind crusts, but many visible rocks kept us from venturing far off the trail.  

We observed one recent natural avalanche in the back of Upper Willow Creek, and some older avalanches from previous loading events. Many folks were getting out and starting to test slopes, but for the most part, they were keeping terrain choices conservative with lower-angle slopes and smaller terrain features.