Date of Observation: 05/21/2023
Name: Turner Peterson

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Whetstone

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: More whetstone NE/E wet slabs lake bowl

Date of Observation: 05/18/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Scarp Ridge, viewed from Snodgrass TH

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A pair of large wet avalanches ran sometime since I had views of that area yesterday at noon. They appear to be cornice-triggered wet slabs

Date of Observation: 05/16/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Whetstone. Viewed from town.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches:  Two large wet slabs ran today, adjacent to but independent of each other in Barcelona Bowl, probably cornice triggered.
Weather:
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 05/07/2023
Name: Chris Martin

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Today we traveled up Purples SE ridge to the top of the S couloirs and descended the couloirs with careful evaluation of snow totals and slab cohesion, with techniques that mitigated our exposure.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Dry loose, slow running

Weather: Low visibility, Light-Moderate winds and blowing snow. Cold.

We decided after last weeks warmup to wait for weather stations to reveal the refreeze this weekend and the cold temps that persisted throughout yesterday and today gave us the confidence to push into the alpine for today. The refreeze remains minimal below 2′ down on South Aspects.

Snowpack: 6-8″ of wind blown snow on top of a MfCr. We observed minimal and shallow cracking that remained local to the tips of our skis. The new snow seems to be bonding quite well to the old crust.

We observed pockets of deeper wind transported snow, we did not encounter anywhere these totals were connective across an entire slope as a recipe for propagation.

While traveling we also noticed the warm up from last week in the snowpack. Specifically on South aspects the freeze penetrated about 2 feet down from the past freezing temps since the morning of 5/4 and snow was moist/wet below that.

Date of Observation: 04/30/2023
Name: Insta Gram

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Ruby Peak.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Large slab avalanche off Mt Owen, with debris to Green Lake. Appeared to be cornice triggered.

Date of Observation: 04/29/2023
Name: Turner Petersen

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Sledded up wash gulch and skied Quigley Creek Bowl and then the east bowl on Baldy with Syd and Sam.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Still seeing isolated NE Wind Slabs. Second skier triggered a small pocket. Turned to slow loose wet toward bottom. Ran maybe 400’.
Weather: Sunny. Warm. Winds from the NW.
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 04/28/2023

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Mt. Owen, north side ATL

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered a soft slab. See photo.

Date of Observation: 04/26/2023
Name: Turner Petersen

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Skied the M face on Whetstone with Tom Rob and Dan.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: We kicked the top cornice which produced a very isolated and small wind slab that entrained any available surface snow on a stout north crust. Ran 1000′.
Weather: Sunny. Winds from the NW.
Snowpack: 5′ of new snow on a firm glazed north crust.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 04/25/2023
Name: Whitney Gilliam

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Skooks main skinner!

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: Cloudy, warm, off and on precip
Snowpack: Noticed lots of water in the snowpack ~1ft+ down in the snowpack while breaking trail… hard to say if it was because of rain or a poor freeze. Didn't think too much of it, but near the skooks bench I experienced two large wumphs/collapses and decided to turn around :)

Date of Observation: 04/22/2023
Name: Mark And Turner

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: AMR, playground

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Intentional windlip/cornice triggered small storm slab south anthracites which ran full track. Video on insta, freeze frame below.

Ski triggered thin wind slab east facing top of y chute which ran 500 ft or so. See photos.

Skied north facing below tree line with no other signs of instability

Weather: Intermittently heavy snow and sun, with some afternoon graupel. Light winds, cool air temps