Date of Observation: 02/05/2023
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate TH to Poverty Gulch on sled. Tour into upper Poverty Gulch between Augusta and Purple
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A couple of loose avalanches from steep sunny features from recent days, small size.
Weather: Thin, high cloud cover turned into partly cloudy skies as the cloud deck lowered. Obvious increase in wind speeds in the PM. Blowing snow was frequent at the highest elevations during the afternoon, but actual loading and thin slab formation looked pretty isolated.
Snowpack: Toured around easterly aspects from 9,800 to 12,200 feet. Snowpack test on drifted alpine slope produced no results. Surfaces near and above treeline remain dry on west through north through east aspects or in the warmest shoulder aspect locations… fragile, soft crusts. The south half of the compass developed crusts 2 – 3 cm thick on steep slopes. The exception to this was sunny terrain with dry fetches nearby…these start zones had two thinner melt/freeze crusts from warming and drifting over recent days (like the test profile in photos). Slope scale sunnies at all elevations no longer seem as concerning for avalanches to break at the old storm interface now that crusts will remain frozen and presumably buried by the incoming storm.
We observed numerous aggressive ski/snowboard lines on north through east through south slopes over the past few days in this area without incident.
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- Crusts, ice columns, and ice lens present in upper snowpack on low elevation sunny slopes in this area.
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- No test results on a well-drifted southeast-facing slope above treeline. At this location, there was two thin crusts near the surface from the combination of warm temps and drifting over the past few days. Further down slope where no loading occured, there was a moist 2.5cm crust present at the surface.
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- Blowing snow in the afternoon from strong wind speeds. There could have been a few isolated, thin Wind Slabs forming.
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- Recent Wet Loose avalanches on west-facing below treeline slopes in the upper Slate River drainage.
