Max's Mtn. Avalanche Details

A group triggered an avalanche while ascending Max's Mountain above Girdwood on March 21, 2026. One person was caught, carried,  and fully buried, and was able to clear his face on his own. The person sustained injuries that required a helicopter evacuation. The avalanche failed on a layer of facets that was buried by a storm that impacted the area one day prior. We suspect a combination of moderate winds and surface warming stiffened the overlying slab, making the snowpack more sensitive through the day.

The avalanche was roughly 1-2' deep, 150' wide, and ran 400-500 vertical feet. The group triggered the avalanche near the bottom of the slope, and the fracture propagated roughly 100-200' above the party. The avalanche ran through several sparse stands of trees, and the debris pile was anywhere from 5 to 8' deep on average. 

There were around 10 other human-triggered avalanches in the Girdwood/Turnagain/Placer area within a few hours of this incident, with at least two other people caught and carried.

We dug a pit near the top of the debris pile, immediately adjacent to the flank of the avalanche. We found two weak layers of faceted snow in the upper 2' of the snowpack, and are confident the avalanche failed on the upper layer of facets, which formed during the week leading up to the March 19 storm. This ranged from 1 to 2' deep at the crown of the avalanche.

The weak layer responsible for the avalanche was a layer of 1-2 mm near-surface facets, which was buried about 1' deep (35 cm) in our pit location. The overlying slab was a little stiffer than fist-hard and composed of wind-broken precip particles. We got an unstable test result (ECTP12) that failed at the same interface as the avalanche. 

See attached snowpit profile for detailed snowpack information. South-facing slopes had a thin melt/freeze crust on the surface when we exited the area just after noon.