Date of Observation: 01/02/2023
Name: Evan Ross
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Kebler Pass area. All aspects. Up to 10,700ft.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several very small storm slabs. 1 to 2″ thick. Some releasing naturally and some human triggered, only on the steepest slopes near or above 40 degrees.
Weather: Overcast, calm wind. heavy snowfall started around 11am and lasted for about 1 or 1.5 hours. The sun started poking through a few times around mid-day or early afternoon on the way home.
Snowpack: Plenty of test slopes around 35 degrees on all aspects and some much steeper. Most slopes were 100ft vertical or less. Some were a couple of hundred vertical feet. The PSa problem presented no obvious signs of instability as has been the case recently in similar terrain. No shooting cracks or collapses. Otherwise, any slab displacement downhill in these areas may often be held up in the compression of the slopes, given how thick the slab has become.
Got some ok views of the Dyke, steep stuff below Floresta, Axtel 1/2 bowl and 1st bowl, and the track of 2nd bowl. Of course the Kebler corridor too. Noting stood out through the little windows that presented.