Northwest Avalanche Center - Public Observation

Name:

Vivienne Jaehn-Kreibaum

Observation Date:

March 19, 2023

Submitted:

March 20, 2023

Zone or Region:

Snoqualmie Pass

Activity:

Skiing/Snowboarding

Location:

Trail/skintrack to Kendall Katwalk, that general zone that starts off the Snoqualmie Haute route

Did you observe any avalanches?

Yes

Comments:

All steep slopes on this west/northwest facing aspect (I believe this is the standard skin track up to the Kendall Katwalk) slid. The ones with more of a runway created a talus field of snow that appeared easily several feet deep. The snow would have been heavy enough and had enough momentum to induce trauma to a person and/or bury them.

None reported

We crossed this zone between 7-9am on Saturday, 3/18 on our way to do the Haute route. At the time, there we signs of wet loose activity on southerly and east-facing aspects, but were isolated to steeper couloirs and small (although a lot of the south-facing couloirs coming off Red Mountain hadn't slid yet), but the west- and north-facing aspects were still frozen solid. When we returned to this area between 12:30-14:30 on Sunday, 3/19 (after bailing close to Alaska Lake the day before due to wet loose slide activity everywhere, especially on the long traverse of southerly slopes we would have crossed), we found most of our skin tracks covered in large wet loose slides that could easily take out a person. The skintrack for this area crosses west-facing aspects at around 1250m, and the slides originated on the top of the slopes that went up to 1700m. Pretty much every aspect that was steep enough had signs of wet loose activity.