Observation: Turnagain

Location: Seattle Ridge - Minus 3 Bowl area

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Headed South along Seattle Ridge and down toward upper Seattle Creek drainage.

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

None. Many old and wide propagating crowns along with associated debris visible from the natural avalanche cycle during Christmas. Light was too poor for any photos to make these out. It was impressive to see how much of the Seattle Creek Drainage headwall and surrounding areas had avalanched; most steep slopes have slid and many mid-slope gullies.

No known avalanche activity today. Riders starting to get on steeper terrain without incident.

Weather & Snow Characteristics
Please provide details to help us determine the weather and snowpack during the time this observation took place.
Weather

Broken skies and light snow falling every now and then. Breezy Westerly winds along Ridgeline. These were strong enough to create blizzard like conditions and move snow around on the ridge proper. Temps cooled off dramatically during the day from upper 20's to low teens...

Snow surface

Around 3" of light, new snow in the last 24 hours. This new snow was getting blown about easily on the ridge.

Snowpack

We found 20" total of settled snow from the Christmas storm on top of the old faceted surface from Mid December.
Pit results @ 2,800' West facing:
ECTP 18 Resistant Planar, 20 inches down on faceted grains just below the new Christmas snow. No other results in the top 110 cm. Total depth 190cm. There was a small harness change between the slab and weak layer (1 finger slab and 1 finger minus in the faceted weak layer).
Bottom line: 2-3' deep slabs possible but getting harder to trigger.

Photos & Video
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