Quick report
- Cracking
- Observed
- Collapsing
- widespread
Snow surface: 400' - 1200': A thin wet layer/crust over 4-6" of moist new snow around Noon; this wet layer was buried by 1-2" of new moist snow by 3 PM. 1200' - 2100': Moist new snow, sitting on dry, less dense snow from earlier in January. Despite this "upside down" setup making skinning up difficult, it skied quite well! Snowpack: See photos for pit structure/results at 2100'. Quick hand pits on the way up showed that the new/old interface could be separated fairly easily, but the real story was lower down in the snowpack where the crust/facet combinations exist, and hand pits failed with easy force. Ski pole probing consistently found the uppermost crust 40-60cm down from 1200' - 2100' on the route, with layers of facets underneath; generally the uptrack ridge showed little signs of wind transport from the past week, as also evident by the fairly consistent depth of crust burial. Widespread whumphing while setting the skin track, from the parking lot when we'd step off the Iditarod trail to our high point of 2100'. These collapses ranged from deep sounding/subtle to loud with a visual drop of the snow surface, with this variation observed at all elevations. Some collapses seemed to just be underfoot, while others seemed to propagate 100+' away, The final spooky element was that the same area would collapse more than once, or collapse with the 6th or 7th person going up the track. There were small cracks associated with some collapses, but that wasn't the most obvious red flag today! Visibility was difficult today, with no reliable viewing of Tincan/Todds, Sharks Fin, or even Seattle Ridge for recent avalanches from our vantage points. In addition to the low elevation Tincan slabs pictured, we suspected several small recent slabs on steep W aspect rollovers in Eddies northerly facing bowl, between 2000 - 2400'. Finally, walking on a small cornice above Eddies west bowl produced no notable results, with chunks failing just underfoot.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 30s
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- 1200
- Recent Snowfall
- 25
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Precipitation! Light rain in the AM, with light to moderate snowfall - brief periods of 1"/hr - in the afternoon. The snow/rain line creeped up to 1200' midday, but switched to snow to sea level by late afternoon. Overcast with valley fog much of the day, occasional light wind gusts from either the east or northwest. 40f at the parking lot midmorning, but temps dropped to just below freezing by early afternoon.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1.5
- Aspect
- NE
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 1000 ft
Two small low elevation recent slabs near the Iditarod Trail creek crossing between Tincan and Eddies.