Warm weather creates dangerous avalanche conditions

With temperatures pushing into the upper 30s, southeast winds gusting to 50 mph and a mix of rain and snow on the way, Southcentral skiers and snowboarders are girding for another tough day Thursday. On Wednesday, wind and extreme avalanche danger combined to close the lifts at Alyeska Resort, a day after a dose of extremely wet and heavy snow dumped 16 inches of slop at the top of Chair 6.

"We closed due to high winds of 40 mph-plus up top and we were not going to able to run the upper mountain lifts at all," said Amy Quesenberry, Alyeska's marketing manager, who noted that avalanche-control specialists at the resort would shoot down areas of concern with howitzers on Thursday morning. "Lots of snow up top but with lots of rain at the bottom we decided to close as it was a slow midweek day."

She expected with cooler weather moving in that Alyeska would reopen today.

Farther south, forecasters at the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center pegged the avalanche danger in Turnagain Pass as considerable.

Jon Gellings, a forecaster with the center, said temperatures are "quite warm."

Kevin Wright, another forecaster with the center, said late Wednesday afternoon that he wasn't expecting the storm to deliver heavy snowfall. The National Weather Service forecast called for 5 inches in Turnagain Pass.

"The storm isn't super intense," Wright said. "We're kind of borderline going to the next level (avalanche danger rated high).

"But we don't want a repeat of last Saturday -- or worse."

On that day, four skiers were caught in an avalanche skiing in an area near Summit Lake Lodge, hoisted into an Air National Guard helicopter and evacuated. Injuries were not life threatening.