Date of Observation: 12/22/2022
Name: Travis Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Wind slab on a drifted rollover near Gothic. See photo.

Date of Observation: 12/22/2022
Name: Billy Barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Townsite

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: The worst type of weather- cloudy, only very light snow (1″ new 0.12″ water) and damaging strong wind, gusts at my station up to 50 mph but the station was set for snow and is protected from straight on wind. There has been a bit of clearing after sunrise and a bit of a decrease in wind though the temperature has slowly been dropping. Currently still 15-20 west wind gusting to 30 (probably 50 or more in open areas). Wind transport of snow is the biggest slide hazard. billy
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 12/21/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Rec tour on Schuylkill Ridge

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered a handful of shallow, long running sluffs in the top 30 cm of soft, faceted snow.
Weather: Light snowfall all day. Light winds with moderate gusts this afternoon created periods of moderate blowing snow.
Snowpack: 2” new. Minimal signs of instability while breaking trail; one localized collapse near valley bottom. Most steep terrain that we rode on or near had avalanched earlier this month. Bed surfaces are weak and primed for repeat offenders. Surfaces are generally fist hard 1-1.5mm facets on northerlies and soft crust facet sandwiches on southerlies. No wind slab development yet where we were, but I could see plumes off of suspect terrain this afternoon

Date of Observation: 12/20/2022
Name: Billy Rankin

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Up normal Snodgrass skin track with several deviations breaking our own trail, down E & NE aspects below 30 degrees

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: No new avalanches observed
Weather: Clear turning OVC, Highs in the 20’s light variable winds below treelike w/ a few flakes falling around 1500.
Snowpack: HS: 40-80cm’s throughout the lower Snodgrass area. The persistent slab structure still remains though the slab is eroding and getting thinner. We got a few small localized collapses below tree line while off the existing skiing track. We dug a quick profile on a NE aspect below TL on a 25 degree slope. HS: 65 small surface facets / surface hoar on the surface with 10-15cms of weak df’s on top of a 15-20cm 4F – 1F slab / mid pack resting on 20-30cm’s of basal facets 1-2mm.
Compression tests: CTE SP on the 11/28 interface. ECTN. PST SF

Date of Observation: 12/17/2022
Name: Jack Fanselow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Nordic skiing on Mike’s Mile trail

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A small, D1 avalanche slide in the 2nd Climax Chute.
Weather: Sunny, no wind, 10 degrees F.
Snowpack: Unstable snowpack, with a persistent slab problem on all West to East aspects at all elevations and a wind slap problem on most higher elevation SW to NE aspects.

Date of Observation: 12/15/2022
Name: Benjamin Schmatz

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

Observed avalanche activity: No

Weather: Light Snow, overcast, and cold ~15deg

Snowpack: At this location we do not see any old snow problems. The first few storms of the season melted out and did not stick. The bottom layer here was created by the 11/28 storm cycle and has built up since then. Relatively stable considering the lack of faceted snow at the bottom. It was difficult to even discern a layer delineation in the snow pack, but we determined that grain size and hardness deserved a boundary designation. ECTX. no result from an extended column test.

Date of Observation: 12/15/2022
Name: Turner G

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Seen from 135

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: M face of whetstone. Natural early this am. Finally cleared up again to kind of get a photo.
Weather: Windy, cold, socked in.
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 12/15/2022
Name: Travis Colbert

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Standard ascent through the forest to the top of First Bowl. Descended skier’s right edge of the bowl. NE aspect; 9,600-10,800 feet.

Observed avalanche activity: No

Weather: Brisk and overcast with light, intermittent snow and temps in the single digits to low teens. Light to moderate W & NW winds at the ridgetop.

Snowpack: Plenty of fresh windslabs have formed along the ridgetop and in the open terrain. The persistent slab seems to be getting stiffer and more stubborn to trigger. It seems like if triggered, there is a good probability of wide propagation and hard slabs. All of the old crowns have filled in with new wind-driven snow. Best turns were down low in the protected, gladed terrain.

Date of Observation: 12/14/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Mt. CB

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: One fresh-looking D2 persistent slab off of the north side of Barcelona Bowl, likely ran yesterday. Saw a couple of small ones near Meridian Lake that might be older, or maybe they just got a bit drifted in if they ran yesterday. Poor visibility of anything beyond the donut hole.
Snowpack: Evidence of shallow wind slab formation (up to 8″ thick, 4F) in cross drifted near treeline slopes.

Date of Observation: 12/13/2022
Name: Troy Hendrick

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Coneys up to Anthracite Mesa ridge, setting far skiers left skinner instead of traditional semi-bushwacker skinner. We roped into the crown of the slide a few days earlier to get a close up as part of a course. Dug pits on due NE leeward slopes, kicked small cornices on the ridge and skied The Nose.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Nose Stake D1.5 which ran 12/10 and is listed infra in a separate observation.
Weather: Light snow, cold, somewhat foggy later, overcast
Snowpack: Roped into a D1.5 avy crown just skier’s left of The Nose Stake. The pocket ripped on 12/10. We tried to kick off hangfire as we roped in with no results. Skied Coneys on The Nose. Very good skiing, if a little windboard bounce. Dug pit on the far skier’s left skinner. 105 cm snowpack, NE aspect, 30 degree pitch 10,700′. Trashpile of 2mm depth hoar facets from ground up to 25 cm. This is the obvious layer where the 12/10 D1.5 failed. 28-30 cm is a crust. 4f up to fist through rest of snowpack to surface. Temp gradient across 1m is -8 Celsius. This was sortof surprising given the super cold air temps. We would expect further faceting but this snowpack is managing to stay rather warm.