Date of Observation: 03/30/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Rec tour on Axtell 2nd Bowl

Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Clouds increased mid-morning, as did winds. Drifting off of the high peaks.
Snowpack: No signs of instability skiing steep northerly terrain below treeline.
Thin (2-3cm) breakable (1F- to 4F-) crusts span east to due northeast (45 degrees) in steep terrain. This storm interface doesn’t look as bad as the 3/20 interface, but I don’t expect new snow to bond well to these crusts. There is a thin layer of small-grained (~.5mm) near surface facets above the crust. This layer gets thicker (up to 5 mm thick) moving towards northeast, while the crust gets softer and thinner. Anything north of 45 degrees held dry, settled powder with minor surface faceting (~.3mm) and minimal sluffing.

Date of Observation: 03/25/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: South of forecast area
Route Description: Rec tour, Spring Creek area. SE to NE aspects BTL

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A recent persistent slab on a west facing slope BTL.
Weather: Mostly cloudy, very light snow. Unseasonably cold. Moderate winds in exposed terrain.
Snowpack: Snowdepth was around 100 to 130 cm. We got a couple of large collapses that appeared to fail mid pack, below about 60 cm of slab-forming snow that has fallen in March. The weak layer was facets (F) with one or multiple crusts above. These were on low angle southeast slopes; more representative of what I would expect to find on steep east.

Date of Observation: 03/24/2023
Name: Cosmo Langsfeld

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Cement Creek Rd

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Fresh looking slide on Cement Mtn north bowl. NE-ish aspect, maybe some of the E facing terrain as well. Looks like it began in wind loaded terrain up high and stepped down into a deeper layer part way down the path. Spotted Friday morning.
Weather: Partly cloudy.
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 03/24/2023

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Red Lady Glades

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Remote triggered this repeat offender D2.5 from 50m away on ridge at about 12pm. Crown estimated to be 70m x 40cm. Failed at storm interface on 2mm facets resting on 2.5cm crust.
Weather: Sun, clouds & flurries. Light winds ATL.
Snowpack: Hand shear of crown “cash registered” as I was most of the way through cutting the block.

Date of Observation: 03/23/2023
Name: Sam Strait

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Snowmobile tour up Cement Creek Road and in terrain adjacent to road

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: 2x small (D1) naturals on W aspect @10,400

Weather: Mostly cloudy with brief periods of sun

Date of Observation: 03/23/2023

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Observed from my kitchen window

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Overnight natural avalanche cycle on E aspects of Whetstone.
Weather: Clearing skies
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 03/23/2023
Name: Turner Petersen

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Seen from 135. Crown wraps N-NW

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Yes
Weather:
Snowpack:

Photos:

Date of Observation: 03/21/2023
Name: Travis Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: View from Gothic Research Meadow

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Natural avalanche on Bellview

Weather: Cold, high clouds, -14C in Gothic. Calm.

Date of Observation: 03/20/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Rec tour, several northeast facing slopes BTL

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered a loose dry avalanche that was large enough to push someone into a tree or terrain trap, entraining about 10″ of loose snow.
Weather: Snowfall rates alternated between light and moderate. Calm winds BTL.
Snowpack: About 6″ of pleasantly fluffy new snow by 4 p.m., on top of a low density, faceted interface. The upper 10″ or so sluffed easily on slopes steeper than about 38 degrees. No slab formation yet in the new snow, but once it does, there is a decent amount of snow for entrainment.

Date of Observation: 03/19/2023
Name: Lee Pownall

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: nacho, seldom seen, white widow, west whiterock, north white bench mark, red ridge over a couple days

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several nf shots in queens had cornice fall that tumbled close to 1000 feet before stepping down into p slab in extremely shady protected spots. West face whiterock had slid full track without stepping down. Some newer debris in the widow
Weather: Sunny. Springy, but not hot enough to really saturate anything. Enough wind to fill tracks in overnight
Snowpack: Extremely confusing. Some spots on the top of the compass had wind effect, most spots on the bottom of the compass had some sort of solar effect. Plenty of pow and it was ALL faceted. It was a crapshoot figuring out where the crust/facet sandwich was, my arms are tired from jabbing my pole thru layers.

My big takeaway…this next load will be extremely spooky, as there isn’t much continuity as far as aspect is concerned. Should be fun once it’s under a few more inches of swe