Date of Observation: 02/25/2023

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Skinning under a benched ridge line.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Weather: Mostly sunny

Date of Observation: 02/25/2023
Name: Rob Strickland

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: PBR

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Small wind slab: ATL > east
Weather: Delightful
Snowpack: Deep, calm, and warming

Date of Observation: 02/25/2023
Name: Andrew Breibart

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch TH-Snowcross course next to the road-standard skin track to First Bowl.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Observed two small avalanches (D0.5-D1) below cornices on Skooks. These were likely observed in obs from 2/24/23.
Weather: calm in the valley bottom and within the trees with a light wind on the ridge line. Mostly cloudy and temperatures were very warm except on the ridge line in the light wind.
Snowpack: On the lower uptrack observed very small roller balls traveling less than 30 feet on >20 degree slope on one open area. Ventured off the skin track and had no cracking or collapsing. I kicked off very small roller balls that traveled less than 30 feet in this area on open terrain >20 degrees. There was no entrainment of snow from any of the rollerballs.
Riding snow was about 6 inches deep (15 cm deep) on south side of first bowl (NE aspect). Snow was warming quickly. On the ridge, I scraped patches of snow from my skis before the descent.
On the ski out, we talked to two skiers who skied Anthracite Mesa south of Coneys and across from Snodgrass T.H. They said snow clumped up to a few inches on their skis during their descent. They were still scraping snow when we passed them on the skin out.

Date of Observation: 02/23/2023
Name: Dan Hohl

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Toured up skier’s R side of Raccoon Glades. Triggered two loud collapses at 11,100′ on a S facing slope. Dug down approximately 3′ to a near crust facet layer that is the likely culprit behind the failures.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 02/22/2023
Name: Sam Lesnikoski

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Standard anthracite’s skin track and ski runs

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: None observed
Weather: Cold. Light wind and snow through out the day tapering by afternoon
Snowpack: Surprisingly little wind effect, minimal ridge top loading. Storm snow was dense with no results in terrain over 35 degrees. Stomping on ridge top windrifts and convexities produced only minor cracking.

Date of Observation: 02/22/2023
Name: Sam Ridley

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: I skied from Snodgrass TH out 317 to the 1 mile shots and did laps there and above the road on the way back between 9am and 1pm. I was primarily on N through NE facing BTL terrain.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: There were variable moderate to strong winds, primarily from the SW. Precipitation intensity generally increased throughout the morning, ranging from none to around an inch per hour. There was significant snow transport BTL in less sheltered areas to north facing terrain.
Snowpack: Wind sheltered areas had 6″+ of new snow, which sloughed easily on steeper test slopes but I did not find cohesive slabs in the trees. More open, wind loaded N to NE facing slopes near the road had 1.5’+ new snow, shooting cracks, and were getting deeper, stiffer, and easier to initiate cracks in throughout the morning.

Date of Observation: 02/21/2023
Name: Mark Robbins

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Skied thanksgiving bowl

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Guessing cornice fall on scarps ridge near redwell. See crappy iPhone photo. No instabilities noted while skiing.

Weather: Real warm and sunny. Moderate winds at ridge line doing a good job of transporting snow into the skooks shots. Looked like strong winds up high with snow plumes on the higher peaks

Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 02/19/2023

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Toured through calm thick trees on a northeast aspect up to ridgeline where we encountered strong winds from west. Intentionally triggered wind slab by stomping on suspected wind loaded slope.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Wind slab 6-12” thick released above thick trees and wrapped slightly around the corner into main chute.
Weather: Light snow, strong West/Southwest winds at ridge line
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 02/19/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Schuylkill Ridge to 11,400’

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few small wind slabs ran today from wind-loaded alpine terrain features (D1-1.5). I skier triggered a 6” wind slab on a drifted near treeline rollover.
Weather: 2” of new snow fell today. Moderate winds started loading mid-afternoon at higher elevations, then strong winds late afternoon started blowing snow at all elevations. Late afternoon winds were so strong that they appeared to be blowing snow into the atmosphere rather than loading.
Snowpack: Traveled near and below treeline looking for wind slab formation and found a few soft drifts up to 6” that produced cracking. I tested the 2/13 interface on NE and SE aspects and found no failures or concerning-looking structures. We skied steep terrain with only minor sluffing.

Date of Observation: 02/19/2023
Name: Chris Martin

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: We traveled up the classic Red Lady skin track out for an adventure seeing where mother nature would allow us. Strong winds slowed us up at tree-line on the corniced ridge. We created many options for our group today, including but not limited to any specific descent.

At tree-line, we traversed over to above Little Lady Bowl preparing for our descent. We arrived at the mouth to regroup before traveling the ridgeline, here, a few members of our group felt a callapse. As we traveled along with bowls ridgeline in sub 20 degree terrain we regrouped and noticed a SE pocket remote triggered. We investigated the slide before descending our favorite red lady glades lap becasue is was our plan D and the safest descent for the day.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Little Lady Bowl SE – 38* – 11200′ – D2 – R2

Failed on: 1mm FC above a 2cm crust fragile crust
Down 35cm
Weather: Moderate to strong gusts out of the W
Partly cloudy & OVC
Precip: S-2
Snowpack: Crusts observed at snows surface and below recent storms snow. We observed a 2cm crust below two previous storm/wind transported snow events. The avalanche seemed to step down into two recent events.