Forecasters are warning of high avalanche danger in the mountains around Southcentral Alaska this weekend as a storm is expected to bring heavy snowfall and strong winds.
The Chugach National Forest Avalanche Center issued an avalanche warning in effect from 6 a.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Sunday for the western Chugach and Kenai Mountains from Anchorage to Seward. That includes Chugach State Park, Girdwood and Portage, Turnagain Pass, the interior Kenai Peninsula and the southern Kenai Mountains.
“Heavy snowfall and strong winds will overload a weak snowpack, creating widespread areas of unstable snow,” the center said in its warning, which was shared by the National Weather Service. “Both human triggered and natural large avalanches are very likely. Debris from avalanches above may run into valley bottoms.”
Forecasters recommended that backcountry travelers avoid avalanche terrain, staying off and avoiding being beneath slopes steeper than 30 degrees as avalanches can run long distances and debris may run out into valley bottoms, the warning said.
Forecasters have cautioned of dangerous spring snow conditions as avalanches have been observed in recent days across the region, including at Hatcher Pass, Byron Glacier and in Chugach State Park, where multiple hikers were rescued last weekend after triggering an avalanche at Peak 3, southeast of Flattop.
