Avalanche: Turnagain

Location: Road Obs including Portage

Date:

April 4, 2017 4:00pm

Observer:

Aleph Johnston-Bloom Professional

Route & General Observations

Girdwood to Johnson Pass parking and back with a spin through Portage.

Avalanche Details

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Trigger	Natural	Remote Trigger	0
Avalanche Type	Unknown	Aspect	Unknown
Elevation	unknown	Slope Angle	unknown
Crown Depth	unknown	Width	unknown
Vertical Run	unknown

Avalanche Details

There was avalanche activity on almost all avalanche terrain observed. Some was "dirty" indicating that avalanches were running down into the basal facets. Hard to see activity above 2500'. Skier side was of Turnagain was completely in the clouds. Most of Seattle Ridge has slid. Couldn't see if it had covered the uptrack but ran very close. Hard to get good photos with poor visibility.

Along the Seward highway there were some impressive results from AKRR/DOT hazard mitigation work and in Portage Valley some deep crowns.

Red Flags

Red flags are simple visual clues that are a sign of potential avalanche danger. Please record any sign of red flags below.

Obvious signs of instability

Recent Avalanches?	Yes
Collapsing (Whumphing)?	No
Cracking (Shooting cracks)?	No

Observer Comments

Many natural avalanches and some artillery triggered ones along highway and RR corridor

Weather & Snow Characteristics

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Weather

Raining, heavy at times,
Mostly terrible visibility for observations on T-Pass and in Portage
36F for most of drive on truck thermometer
Gusty Easterly winds

Photos & Video

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