Date of Observation: 01/19/2023

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Up Walrod

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: small slab on west facing slope, running next to the trail.
Weather: 1/19/2023
Sunny, 20s
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 01/18/2023

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Climbed up the NE face of Snodgrass to the top of “Abbey Lane”, then gained the ridge to the top of “Fourth Bowl”. We dug the snowpit there, then skied down to Gothic road.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: No avalanches. Minor sluffing of the most recent storm snow, between 2 and 5″, during skinning.

Weather: Overcast with some sunshine peeking through.

Snowpack: 210cm deep snowpack downslope of a large tree at the top of 4th bowl. See attached image.
Performed a compression test and observed no failure, although snow only compressed until the layer at 150cm.

Date of Observation: 01/17/2023
Name: Rob Strickland

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: RLG skinner maintenance…

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Small slabs (4”) naturally released on East facing side of the bowl near the tree line, as seen from the windy ridge.
Only small point releases from tree bombs and stomping cornices just past the windy ridge. So I was surprised to see the slabs above there.

Weather: Snowy, low vis

Date of Observation: 01/17/2023
Name: J. Mortimer

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: CBMR A/C Operations

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: • Avalanche observations from today and yesterday are listed here due to InfoEx not populating the Obs. into the email correctly under avalanche observations
• 01.16.23
High Exit – 3rd Bowl
SS-ASr-R1-D1.5-O/G This avalanche was remotely triggered by a patroller stomping snow at the base of a tree in a safe zone. A loud collapse and whooph was heard Multiple 2 lb. shots on snow had been deployed
• Funnel
HS-AE-R3-D3-O/G Large hard slab avalanche triggered with two simultaneous 4 lb. shots in snow. The avalanche ran full track. The depth of the debris was 75 to 155 cm
• 01.17.23 Bermuda Triangle
AE-SS-R3-D2-G
This avalanche was triggered with one 2 lb. shot in snow at 10,600’ on a NE aspect in Bermuda Triangle / Phoenix area
The avalanche occurred on a 55 degree slope was 200’ wide, vertical fall 800’ ran 800’
Crown depth was 5 to 6 feet

Date of Observation: 01/15/2023

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate up to ATL

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Innumerable point releases due to tree bombs. Some running up to 500 feet. Long running but slow sluffs under board.
Weather: Snowfall rates to 3 inches an hour, wow.
Cold front around noon
Winds building as of 5
Snowpack: Deep enough. primary concern was buried surface hoar which was rampant up to ~10000 the day prior. The intense graupel last night and warm Temps seem to have homogenized that buried layer into something less concerning

Date of Observation: 01/10/2023

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Anthracite skin track and a few of the typical runs there

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: It was hard to tell how old some of these crowns were, as snowfall and wind were refilling things fast.

East Bowl crown that looked to have propagated a few hundred feet, ending at skier’s right of Friendly Finish, ~D2

Crown about 50 feet wide on steep North facing terrain in the playground area, NTL, ~D2; visible right across the basin from the usual transition spot at the top of most the commonly skied runs at AMR

Pretty wide crown below Ohio sub-peak/Moose’s Tooth(?), maybe a few hundred feet, East facing ATL, ~D2

(topo attached shows drawn solid red lines for obvious crowns, drawn dashed red lines for crowns harder to see clearly)
Weather: Snowing all day, ranging from light to heavy; occasional ridgetop gusts NTL around 20 mph; also noted graupel-like snow for a good portion of the day
Snowpack: Snow total measured 240 cm in our pit. Top meter of snow ramped up from Fist hardness storm snow for about 10 inches to 1F hardness by the bottom of the meter mark, with no obvious weak layers identified. ECTN, small crack at new/old snow interface, and another about 70 cm down.

On windloaded slopes NTL, new snow was consolidating over the course of the day, with our final observations revealing spots of 4F hardness.

Date of Observation: 01/07/2023
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic

Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Moderate snowfall through midmorning Friday, then light through the day with heavy periods, though a light density snow. A pause near sunset until moderate snow towards midnight for 3 hours. Clearing near sunrise so 24 hour snow total was 11½” with 0.81″ of water. Snowpack reached 54½” deep. Temperature is dropping as it clears after a high of 26F and current 7F. No wind (always a nice event)

Date of Observation: 01/05/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Mt. CB looking east towards Pearl Pass, Doubletop, etc, looking at the western half of the compass.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Lots of action above treeline that looks fresh, likely from the 1/3-1/4 cycle, generally on cross-drifted features from the NW winds, D2 in size. Also a lot of activity at all elevations that looks a bit older, likely from the 12/31-1/1 cycle. Only documenting the larger slides (D2), plenty of smaller ones too.
Weather: Some light drifting still occurring on high peaks.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 01/05/2023

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Below treeline, NE aspect.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Pockets the Clown looks to have jumped drainages and become a bit more widespread and angrier in his activity bouncing around aspects and wreaking some havoc. One that had pulled out previously on a shaded north aspect below treeline ran down the creek bed spilling out nearby a common skin track. Another one on a S/SE aspect hit a common snowmobile route. Not big but still reached it. Also, pocket had pulled out on the steepest pitch of our descent, probably two days ago as there was some new snow in the avalanche path
Weather: It felt warm, and then felt cold. Saw some rollerballs on S/SW aspects around 1:30. Snow on the skin track wall facing SW got warm enough to cause sticking at 2 p.m. Winds out of the SW (?) whipped up temporarily up high around 1 p.m. transporting snow.
Snowpack: Top 14 inches was thicker than previous two days on similar aspect in a different drainage. No signs of instability where we skied today.

Date of Observation: 01/05/2023
Name: Connor Scalbom

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Climax Chutes

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Photos of Climax Chutes submitted via @connography_