Date of Observation: 01/30/2023

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: A few laps on the North-Easterly lines of Snodgrass, accessed via Gothic Road skin track

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: All localized sluffs and small crowns, confined to storm snow-old snow interfaces only on the steepest of rollovers
Weather: Snowing hard all day, temps were pretty cold outside of denser stands of trees; the sun came through the clouds for about an hour midday; often still/subtly breezy, but there were frequent gusts around 25 mph throughout the day.
Snowpack: Pit @ ~9900 ft, NE aspect, 28* slope angle

Snow height at pit 155 cm

ECTN 7 @ 135 cm, storm snow-old snow interface, and with progressive loading to 30, ECT X. Moderately aggressive prying resulted in a non-planar break at 95 cm on what appeared to be an old sun crust that had just started to decompose before it was buried.

The top meter of snow ramped up in hardness from F for the top 20 cm to 4F for roughly another 30 cm to 1F for the remaining 50 cm, with no obvious weak layers detected.

Date of Observation: 01/30/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Mt Axtell, mostly below treeline, poked into ridgeline near treeline terrain too.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Some small sluffing and micro slabs with ski cuts BTL
Weather: Light to moderate snowfall rates this morning, with a few inches on the skin track and a few more by midday. Moderate winds with significant previous and ongoing transport as we got into more wind exposed terrain.
Snowpack: Below treeline: very soft slab (12”, F) on a soft lightly faceted interface, not much propagation; ski cuts would crumple small slabs and behave more like sluffs.
Near treeline in wind exposed terrain (Wang Chung and 4th Bowl) there were obvious drifts; flat light and the high consequence terrain here made it difficult to get any feedback.

Date of Observation: 01/28/2023
Name: Andrew Breibart

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch to Coneys via normal skin track.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Moderate to strong winds from the west on the ridge with snow transport into first bowl and second bowl. In the lower 1/3 of the slope and in the valley bottom, moderate downslope winds with blowing snow. Intermittent periods of S1 snowfall. Wind was the main cause of changes in snow depth and texture. skies were obstructed which precluded the ability to observe avalanche activity.
Snowpack: skin track snow depth: 30 cm (12) inches in the lower part of the skin track and up to 53 cm (21) inches below the ridge on a leeward slope.
summit ridge snow depth: above convex corner was about 25 cm (10 inches) and approximately 10 cm (4 inches) above first bowl.

Date of Observation: 01/28/2023
Name: Frank Stern

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Red Lady Glades

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: SSE aspect, 11,000′, SS-N-D2-R1-i
SSE aspect, 10,000′ SS-N-D2 R1-i
Weather: Snowy and windy
Snowpack: 12″ fresh

Date of Observation: 01/26/2023
Name: Sophia Todorov

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: RMBL Snow Study Plot in parking lot in front of Dining Hall

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: partly cloudy, calm, about 6 degrees F
Snowpack: Snowpack is 116cm. The top ~half~ (65cm-116cm) is snow from the most recent storm cycles that has settled greatly, ranging from F at the top to 1F firmness at the bottom of the layer. This is followed by a relatively strong P layer (32cm-65cm). The snowpack is still maintaining the weak F layer from 15cm to 32cm, but it is buried deep now. And, as a result, we did not observe any collapse or propagation during an extended column test. ECTX.

Date of Observation: 01/26/2023
Name: Travis Colbert

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Red lady skin track to the summit. Redwell Basin to Wrong Chute. 9,000-12,400ft NW, N & NE aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: Clear & cold. -24 degrees at the Slate TH, probably low teens on the summit. Minimal wind.
Snowpack: Entrance (NW aspect) was very wind impacted, but the sastrugi was surprisingly soft. A few hundred feet down, the snow transitioned to relatively consistent, dense powder. The lower we went, the softer the snow, with the best turns in the belly of Wrong Chute (or in this case right chute…let the confusion persist for eternity). Seems like the snowpack is becoming more faceted during this dry, cold spell.

Date of Observation: 01/25/2023
Name: Travis Colbert

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Standard up track on the SE end of Schuylkill ridge. Descended to the valley floor just north of Snake in the Grass or Snakey (or whatever it is called). 9,200-11,400ft; mostly NE aspect.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Ski triggered a very small windslab (6″ deep, 20′ wide) on a steep rollover in open terrain (obviously wind affected snow) on one of the lower benches (9,800 feet). No big deal, but could have been a bigger deal in more consequential terrain. We also saw a moose!

Date of Observation: 01/24/2023

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Toured from gravel pit

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: We saw and heard no signs of instability except near tree line on wind exposed ridges. Small natural shallow releases on steep slopes. Nothing significant.
Weather: High clouds, light west winds and cold temps.
Snowpack: 120-150cm. Mostly uniform on the tour. Supportable mid pack. Pole probing showed a small weaker layer near the ground but we did not effect it on our ski or skin. Ski penetration was 20-30cm

Date of Observation: 01/22/2023
Name: Zane Wasicko

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Skinned in Washington Gulch to do some beacon practice. Now real skiing.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Small slide on South West aspect of Gothic near tree-line. Didn’t see it happen but saw a crown. Pretty small but though may as well submit

Weather: Clear am, cloudy pm. Sunny. Cold. Not too windy

Date of Observation: 01/23/2023

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Long tour below timberline on W-N-E slopes. Two consecutive days. ~6 miles

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: No new avalanches. Small crowns buried from at least a week ago.

Weather: Cold, calm, sunny

Snowpack: No obvious signs of instability beneath the skis. No observed instability on surrounding mountains. Supportive Sun crusts on west faces. Dry cold surface on N-SE slopes