Big and stubborn along Kebler Corridor

Date of Observation: 01/06/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Standard Axtell uptrack and descended a recent bedsurface/debris pile in 2nd Bowl. Then snowmobiled out to Beckwith Pass, traveling mostly below treeline.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several recent large and very large avalanches in Axtell. 2nd Bowl had what appeared to be two unique events that both reached valley floor. The first likely ran during the 12/31-1/1 cycle, evidenced by about 12″ of new on the bedsurface. The second and larger of the two likely ran during the 1/3-1/4 cycle, evidenced by only last night’s snow on the debris. There were a couple of other large avalanches on smaller terrain features in 2nd Bowl. All crowns were about 4 feet thick and failed on depth hoar near the ground. The Wang Chung slide put a big debris pile in valley bottom as well, likely another D3. I couldn’t see if the crown extended into Pencil or not.
Weather: Moderate to heavy snowfall most of the day. There was about 6″ of new near Beckwith Pass at noon, and it came down hard on our way out. Blowing snow near treeline.
Snowpack: Today’s objective was to target sensitivity of below treeline slopes in the shallower fringe areas of the NW Mtns. Stubborn fits well; jumping above and sidehilling across numerous slopes did not produce any signs of instability, and we saw no collapses. The mid-December layer is showing significant improvement (~1mm, rounding) and didn’t produce failures in tests. However, we did still get propagating results (once on isolation, once on hard loading) on the depth hoar layer at the ground, on a north-facing slope of Mt. Axtell.