Observation: Public

Name:

Josh Hirshberg

Observation Date:

January 9, 2021

Submitted:

January 9, 2021

Zone or Region:

Snoqualmie Pass

Activity:

Skiing/Snowboarding

Location:

Alpental Valley

Did you observe any avalanches?

Yes

Avalanche Type:

Soft Slab

Size:

Size 1: Relatively harmless to people

Elevation:

Aspect:

Comments:

A guide (rhymes with poorest McGiant) witnessed 2 skier triggered avalanches today. Both size D1 soft slabs. One on skiers right of Pineapple Pass, below cliffs, NW, 5000ft. Another one on Bryant Peak, NE, 4800ft.

We also saw countless roller balls and small point releases (all D1) around the valley from the past 2 days on many aspects and elevations .

None reported

We dug a profile in flat terrain at 3720ft below Source Lake. Height of Snow was 355cm. Surfaces were 5.0mm surface hoar. We found multiple storm interfaces in the upper snowpack but the most consistent results were down 30cm from the surface on the Jan 5th(?) interface- CTM (RP) x2 and clean and planar shears in a tilt test. The Jan 1st melt forms were down ~85cm and pencil hard, though not a stout/frozen crust. Layers below Jan 1st were moist and unfrozen.