Avalanche: Turnagain

Location: Tincan Trees

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Checked out the glide avalanche on the West face of Pyramid that released sometime before 10:30 am. We had brief window of visibility and took a quick road observation lap before touring up the standard Tincan up-track to 2100′. The rain line was 1750′. We saw some small avalanche activity off of CFR ridge and some active wind loading. No major avalanche activity observed on the non-motorized side. Seattle Ridge is littered with debris piles. Some appear more recent and many are from the weekend. There was a new wet slab on Seattle Ridge south of Bertha Creek campground. There was roller balls on easterly aspects getting affected by the sun. Cornices are large.

Avalanche Details
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Trigger NaturalRemote Trigger0
Avalanche Type Wet SlabAspect East
Elevation 2200ftSlope Angleunknown
Crown DepthunknownWidthunknown
Vertical Rununknown  
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
Weather & Snow Characteristics
Please provide details to help us determine the weather and snowpack during the time this observation took place.
Weather

Broken skies with bit of sun when we arrived changing to completely obscured
Snowing S-1 (less than a cm/hr) starting around 2:30
Winds were moderate and easterly

Snow surface

1000'-1500' 2-4" saturated snow over 6" moist snow
1500'-1750' 1" saturated snow trending to moist snow with elevation gained over 1-2' of settled snow
1750'-2100' 1.5-2' of moist settled snow

Snowpack

Rain on snow up to 1750' @ lower elevations the rain has saturated 2-4" down into the snow.
2/21 crust under the recent snow up 2000'.
Dug 1 Pit @ 1880', NW aspect, 37 degree slope to determine if the recent storm had bonded to the 2/21 crust. HS > 300 cm. Pit height = 130 cm. 2/21 crust was 70 cm below the surface. ECTX, CTN
Roller ball activity while skiing.

Photos & Video
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