Date of Observation: 02/08/2023
Name: Tad Barnes
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Red Lady Bowl, Standard approach
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: D1- Redwell scarp ridge side
D1- Lookers right of Red Lady bowl gulley
Weather: OVC
Snowpack: Wind crusty in spots. 3 in wind slabs above treeline by skin track that were reactive to skier weight.
Date of Observation: 02/07/2023
Name: Mark Robbins
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: anthracites
Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: cold in the shade, hot in the sun. Calm winds
Snowpack: Enjoyed southerly skiing in the morning, sunday night’s storm snow had settled but not yet gone thermal on a crust that was supportive to skis but not to poles. By the afternoon the sun had done its thing to the new southerly snow. First skin glopping of the winter.
Evidence of the wind event really just at ridgelines, north facing snow from sunday night was as yet undisturbed and cold.
Date of Observation: 02/07/2023
Name: Josh Jones
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Schuylkill Ridge NE
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Saw and triggered a few small loose sluffs on steep rollovers.
Snowpack: Probed at 10400 on a NE sheltered aspect, 175 CM.
Date of Observation: 02/05/2023
Name: Chris Read
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Brush Creek to Friends Hut
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: 2 wet slides on Death Pass. Occurred sometime between 9:45 and 3:30.
Weather: Sunny, warm, windy
Snowpack: Sun effected, wet
Date of Observation: 02/04/2023
Name: Daniel Hogan
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Traveled up Copper Creek to get to gain the saddle above Zachary’s and continued up towards to check out the other side of the ridge. Skied down a bit to dig a pit just to looker’s left of the Zachary’s entrance with ETCP23 results that failed on the depth hoar layer around 30 cm above the ground surface.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Lots of small wet loose slides on south-southwest aspects.
Weather: Cool in the north/western protected valley, clear, between -12 to -5 C over the day.
Snowpack: Snow held up on north facing slopes, but had an inch or so crust in the sunny areas or anything that had a hint of a south facing aspect. Small runnels from melt water were visible on these south facing slopes.
Date of Observation: 02/03/2023
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Evan’s Basin
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Large natural slab avalanche out of Evan’s Basin. Guessing it ran yesterday (2/2)
Date of Observation: 02/01/2023
Name: Curtis B
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Southeast flanks of Snodgrass – we traveled along the low angle corridor of the cutoff trail
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Came across a set of solo ski tracks coming from the direction of the standard skin track: from the looks of it, the skier started descending one of the steep, south facing pitches above the Snodgrass trail and made a quick course correction after a large pocket released just to the skier’s left.
Weather: Sunny, high temp in low 20s
Snowpack: ~20cm of (now compacting) snow from the recent storm cycle, on top of the 1/27 interface. New snow was getting dense & warm on S. Facing terrain
Date of Observation: 02/01/2023
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: North Northwest at 10,500’
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered slide in shallow old growth forest with moderately spaced trees. Slope angle was 40* on a North Northwest slope at 10,500’. Crown was 3’-4’ and the snowpack had about 18 inches of depth hoar with another 18 to 24 inches of powder on top of it. Bed surface was at the ground.
Weather: Clear and cold.
Snowpack:
Date of Observation: 02/01/2023
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Standard red lady bowl, skied skiers left of main bowl then cut far left down through the lower bowl.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered on a steep rollover which was fairly loaded up. My track was the 5th or 6th track on the feature before it went. The crown looked to be around 2ft.
Weather:
Snowpack:
Date of Observation: 01/31/2023
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch Road to southern end of Mount Baldy.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several natural avalanches were observed on drifted terrain in the Ruby Range. Slabs did not break deeply and appeared to just involve the snowfall since 1/27. See images.
Weather: Clear skies and light winds at upper elevations. No snow transport was observed during the day.
Snowpack: Below treeline, there was around a 15-inch soft slab from the recent snowy weather since 1/27. Near treeline on drifted terrain, slabs were closer to 2 feet + with hardness commonly 4 finger with isolated, well-drifted features up to 1 finger. Test profiles produced moderate and hard propagating results at the storm interface since 1/27. Both locations were previously drifted and failed above the drifting from last week (1/23 – 1/25). Light faceting was common above and below the older wind drifts from a week ago. I did not find a melt/freeze crust on due south slopes above 10,800 feet at the storm interface. Snow surfaces on southerly slopes became moist in the afternoon from solar radiation.
