#SoFo #EagleRiver obs today: Nice refresh of another 2”+ from yesterday, but still experiencing large collapses above 2500’ on multiple aspects. A few inches of heavy, dense #snow fell with wind Monday before temps cooled and another few inches of uber fluff was deposited. Wednesday brought another few inches of blower fluff. Considering how weak and faceted the snowpack was prior to this recent snow, the re-awakening of widespread persistent slab problems across #ChugachStatePark is not surprising. There is generally a few to several inches of relatively loose F-4F snow above a few inch thick 1F wind packed slab from early Monday. This overlies a thin faceted persistent weak layer on top of a 1F-P old wind packed layer (bed surface). Collapses (whumphs) are occurring in the faceted layer sandwiched between wind packed layers and on the monster depth hoar at the ground. As it looks like the weekend will bring generally benign weather for getting out in the mountains, it will be very important to proceed with caution and assess stability thoroughly if exposing oneself to steep terrain. The primary #avalanche problem, persistent slab, is a relatively tricky one given the hard slab characteristics of allowing a human trigger to get in the middle of a slab before breaking above and around (making escape difficult) and potentially propagating widely. 1: Video of upper elevation area (~3700’ N aspect) where large collapses (whumphs) were experienced on the ascent to North Bowl. 2: If the ratio is true, I sure hope I can rally like this old girl when I’m 85…

A post shared by Anchorage Avalanche Center (@anchorage_avalanche_center) on Feb 15, 2018 at 8:42pm PST