Western Chugach, Chugach State Park, South Fork Eagle River area

We skied steep northerly terrain between 4000-5500′ and human-triggered a lot of high-volume, fast-moving dry loose avalanches (sluffs), as well as a few small (D1) storm slabs. While the storm slabs wouldn’t be able to bury a person without a terrain trap, they definitely had enough volume to cause a fall or loss of control and take one for a long ride down steep terrain. The storm slabs released from areas where the old snow surface was wind-packed, very firm (likely with some faceting on top), and provided a low friction bed surface (weak interface).

We remained wary of persistent slab danger, and while we experienced no red flags related to it, we generally avoided terrain capable of producing a large and dangerous persistent slab.

We observed a few naturally triggered loose wet avalanches (D1.5) initiating from very steep and rocky SW-W aspects (3500-5500′ elevation) late in the afternoon as skies cleared and solar radiation intensified. A bit of rockfall was also observed on similar aspects.

With clearing skies later in the day winds increased slightly, but remained light-moderate and we observed no significant wind loading.