Relentless rumbling collapses, naturals, and remote triggers!

Date of Observation: 12/07/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Snodgrass skin track to the summit, a brief look at northside, and tour around northwest and southwest start zones.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: I observed a natural avalanche in California Bowl with debris visible from the parking lot, and a few other naturals on the north side and remotely triggered an ENE slope from a few hundred feet away. Several naturals ran yesterday (a few inches of refilled snow) and another ran recently without snow on the bed surface. I expected to find more natural avalanches…this leaves many suspect slopes on the north side of Snodgrass just waiting to be triggered by a person.
Weather: Mostly cloudy skies, light winds, and light snowfall starting just after 2pm.
Snowpack: Snowpack is around 85cm (just shy of three feet) on the north half of the compass. Anytime I left the skin track I easily produced loud collapses; like relentlessly for several hours as I moved through untraveled terrain. The recent snowfall and mild temperatures have allowed the slab to gain strength, but NOT the weak layer. The 1-finger hardness in the slab is producing long-running collapses and remotely triggered avalanches. As I contoured around Snodgrass to the northwest signs of instability and long-running collapses continued.  Southwesterly start zones did not produce any signs of instability and appeared to have a “right side up” snowpack with a graupel layer in the middle. Low elevations southeast, south, and southwest slopes developed a soft crust today from mild temps and periods of sun.

Low-angled terrain is skiing awesome right now…supportive and fast turns!