Quick report

Sunburst

Alaska Avalanche SchoolTurnagain Pass
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Quick report

We arrived in the pass around noon and there was a trace amount of new snow on the road. We toured up the normal Sunburst uptrack to a high point of ~2300'. We observed 4" of new snow atop the old snow surface. The old surface crust was supportable up until treeline, above treeline it became unsupportive and breakable. Precipitation intensity increased periodically, skies were overcast and visibility was mostly ping-pong throughout the day. At 2100' on a W aspect we dug a snowpit and found poor structure and unstable results (ECTP2) on a layer of weak snow underneath the melt-freeze crust. Other groups had similar result on snowpits nearby. We kept to low-angle terrain near alder-line and skied two laps before returning to the car.