Turnagain Pass

PRELIMINARY ACCIDENT INFORMATION: February 10th, Boulder Creek Drainage, South of Cooper Landing. Link HERE. This occurred outside of the CNFAIC forecast area.

*A final report is being compiled as we continue to gather additional information. It will be posted as soon as possible. Our deepest condolences go out to the family, friends, and everyone affected at this difficult time.

View of avalanche looking to the north. The snowmachines and people are investigating the site. 2.11.20. 

The already dangerous snowpack is getting loaded again! Please choose terrain very carefully. Alyeska Resort is a great option today or riding in the flats well away from the runout of avalanche terrain. The region picked up 5-10″ of snow overnight with the Portage area being favored and it is still snowing this morning. Winds were easterly averaging 15-25 mph overnight and gusting into the 50s and are still at it this morning. Temperatures rose into the high 20s and with some sea level locations reaching the mid 30s. All these factors combined create the recipe for new storm slabs 6″ to a foot deep and potentially deeper wind slabs in exposed terrain. The temperature increase and/or the wind effect will likely make the snow feel upside down with heavier snow over lighter snow. In addition, this all could overload already dangerous slabs sitting on buried weak layers and step down creating a much larger avalanche (please see Avalanche Problem 2). Look for cracking in the new snow, drifting and wind texture at upper elevations and remember 2-4′ below the surface lurks a very dangerous snowpack structure.

Wind slabs: There is also older wind effected snow just below the new snow from the NW wind event on Monday that could also be potentially triggered in steep terrain. Leeward i.e. loaded terrain for that event was opposite from the loading last night. This is another complexity of the current snowpack.

Loose snow avalanches: Below treeline heavy wet snow may cause loose snow avalanches.

Snowfall this morning at Turnagain Pass at the DOT snow stake.

Triggering a very large unsurvivable avalanche is a very real possibility today. It has been CONSIDERABLE avalanche danger for two weeks. That is a long stretch to have such dangerous conditions and is unfortunately the nature of a persistent slab problem. We don’t see this issue healing up anytime soon. Each snowfall and wind event have incrementally loaded the very weak snow that formed in January. Warming temperatures have made the upper layers of snow even more cohesive/slabby.  There have very large human triggered and natural avalanches observed and avalanches have been triggered remotely. The most recent avalanches observed were on Monday and were very large. Don’t get lured into terrain today by new snow and flirt with triggering a large slab avalanche. As you look ahead to clear skies tomorrow please dial back the fun meter. This snowpack deserves respect. An observer yesterday on Magnum said this was one of the spookiest set-ups he had ever seen and noted a large crown wrapping around Super Bowl that likely slid over the weekend and very large debris chunks in the gulley. Reading back through the observations really illustrates the snowpack issues and avalanche potential. This morning is a great day to do that!

Snowmachine triggered avalanche in 2nd bowl on the backside of Seattle ridge. This occurred 2.10.20. Photo: Travis Smith