Northwest Avalanche Center - Public Observation

Name:

Dallas Glass

Observation Date:

January 14, 2021

Submitted:

January 14, 2021

Zone or Region:

West South

Activity:

Skiing/Snowboarding

Location:

Paradise Area

Did you observe any avalanches?

Yes

Comments:

Numerous D1.5-D3 avalanches in the Paradise area. Most of them were between 6500 and 8500 on NW-N-E-SE aspects. These avalanches occurred during the rain event Monday night 1/11 through Wednesday morning 1/13.

While there were hard to see with the lighting. I also notice several crowns in the Tatoosh Range, however, they were not as numerous, wide, nor large as those in the above treeline band near Paradise.

Photo:

None reported

Terrain: I was out mainly observing the recent avalanche cycle. I traveled from viewpoint to viewpoint with a camera and binoculars. Alta Vista, Glacier Vista, Golden Gate, Edith Creek. As well as several road locations; Glacier Hill, Narada Falls.

Snowpack: There's about 1-3" (2-5cm) of soft snow over the very thick (20cm) and strong (K hard) crust formed during the rain event this week. The crust was boot supportable in locations above 5500'. I found several other discontinuous wetting fronts in the upper snowpack as well as pockets of small dry rounded grains. Vertical percolation columns exist between wetting layers in the upper 2' (60cm) of the snowpack. These provide quite a bit of strength to the snow.

Small isolated pockets of wind slab were found above 6300' on SE aspects up to 8" (20cm) thick. They were generally stubborn and small test slopes produced very minimal results.

I was able to trigger rollerballs up to 2' diameter while skiing steep south-facing slopes around 2 pm. Small test slopes did not produce any loose wet avalanches. The wet snow surface was limited to only the upper few cm.

Weather: Few to scattered clouds with lots of sunshine. Warm temperatures to 35F. Calm winds in the morning becoming light and SSW in the afternoon. You could see evidence of much higher winds at 9400' above our forecasting area.