Fresh natural persistent slab and numerous collapses from Double Top

Date of Observation: 01/08/2023
Name: Zach Guy and Zach Kinler

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Snowmobiling Double Top area to 11,700′ on various aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A large persistent slab off of Peak 13550 (Castlelabra?) at the head of Twin Lakes Basin appears as if it ran today triggered by solar warming or a small sluff, on a south aspect above treeline. Numerous small point releases also ran off of Star Peak on sunny aspects. Got good looks at dozens of avalanches that ran during the 12/31 to 1/4 cycles (I’ll document those later in separate obs), and also observed a handful of fresher-looking crowns that probably ran during the 1/6 storm, details and photos below.
Weather: Few clouds, clear skies, inverted temps, some drifting observed off of the alpine this morning. Light winds where we traveled.
Snowpack: Snowpack is still reactive here. We triggered numerous collapses and shooting cracks near and below treeline on various aspects, on roughly 25% of the open, untracked slopes that we crossed. That’s an improvement from a week ago when it was more like 90% during the storm.  The near treeline collapses were more common transitioning from thick to thin areas. Below treeline seemed a bit more random, perhaps more common on sunnier slopes that have a thin crust amplifying the hardness difference between the slab and faceted weak layer. One stability test on an ENE aspect below treeline produced non-propagating fracture on the mid-December dryspell layer (~1.5-2mm fist hard facets). At this location, the depth hoar layer was discontinuous along the ground, but 3-4 mm and fist hard. New surface hoar was developing in valley bottoms; I didn’t see it higher in the terrain.