Date of Observation: 01/26/2023
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Cement Creek TH to Hunter Hill. Skin up SE slopes to 12,000 feet. Skies modest angled northeast slopes 12,000 – 11,600. Skied southeast 12,000 – 10,400.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A trio of recent Wind Slabs on east aspects of Hunter Hill above treeline, D1.5 and D2. Looking into the greater Elk Mountains, it was hard to view with marginal lighting but looked like maybe a few other recent wind slabs but the photos were inconclusive.
Weather: Cold temperatures at valley bottom were below zero but slowly increased during day and as we ascended out of the inversion zone. Temps at 12,000 feet maybe hit 10 degrees. Winds out of NW remained light with some moderate gusting. Very little snow transport was observed as most windward surfaces near and above 12,000 feet were stiff and lacked soft snow for transport.
Snowpack: No signs of instability underfoot outside of some minor cracking in drifted snow above treeline. Drifted slabs above treeline were stiff and hard. Depth on southeast slopes in this area ranged from 130 – 150 cm. Depth in a northeast-facing basin was around 160cm near treeline. A test profile produced no concerning results but the mid-December weak layer remains 4-finger hard, under a 100cm slab. with clear signs of rounding (see photo). Snow surfaces remained dry on all aspects and provided excellent skiing where protected from the wind. Near surface facets formed on slopes protected from the wind; sizes are generally .5 – .7mm.
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- Recent Wind Slabs on easterly aspects of Hunter Hill. These appear to be a day or so old. The lookers right avalanche was large enough to bury or hurt a person.
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- Small grained facets, .5 – .7 mm, have formed on most snow surfaces protected from the wind especially sunnier slopes with big diurnal temperature swings.
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- Westerly terrain on Italian Mountain has been hit by the wind. Lots of highly variable snow depths in terrain like this. With such great variation in depth, I suspect there are more places where a person could impact weak layers near the bottom of the snowpack.
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- A test profile on a southeast-facing slope did not produce concerning results. Test results over the past 10 days on sunny terrain have continued to improve. However, there is a clear hardness and grain size difference near the bottom of the snowpack from the dry, cold period in the middle of December.
