Date of Observation: 02/18/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: E/NE aspect of Gibson Ridge. Viewed from Highway 135.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few long running sluffs, D1 or maybe 1.5 in size, that appear to be recently skier or snowboarder triggered.
Photos:
Date of Observation: 02/17/2022
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: A few laps at Coney’s. 9,600-10,800 ENE aspects. Started on the standard skin track, but traversed north into the open terrain; climbed the ridge just south of the main bowl.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Soft sloughs (small) on everything over 35 degrees.
Weather: Clear skies. 10 degrees at 9AM warming into the 20s by the end of the tour. Light N wind at the ridge.
Snowpack: 5-8cm of new snow on a firm crust. In the steepest terrain (at the top and near the bottom), new snow was sloughing easily. If the terrain were steeper I could imagine the sloughs moving fast and far.
Date of Observation: 02/13/2022
Name: Rob Strickland
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Loop
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: NTL: Manageable sluffs in E/NE terrain. Some crusts as you dip south. Soft as you dip north.
ATL: wind blown
Weather: Sunny
Snowpack: The wind blew away the surface hoar
Date of Observation: 02/13/2022
Route Description: Unknown
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Photo of loose dry avalanche shared via social media
Date of Observation: 02/12/2022
Name: Garrett Eggers
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Went down 2nd bowl on Snodgrass, through Gothic to Scofield pass, up to paradise divide, and out Washington Gulch.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: I triggered a hard wind slab around 3 PM on south facing terrain at 11,400’ as I came over Paradise Divide in the upper slate region of the northwest mountains. The north side (windward) of paradise divide was strewn with sastrugi but as I crested the saddle onto the south side (leeward) it changed to stiff wind slabs. There were a couple warning wumpfs as I traversed the ridge. I was able to walk on to the middle of a deep lens-shaped slab on low angled terrain but as I skinned towards the edge of the slab and on to slightly steeper terrain (lookers right side of the crown) the slide broke ~1-2’ below my ski and propagated ~75’. The slide ran ~200’ before slowly stopping on lower angled terrain near the road below the south side of the pass. The crown was just shy of 5’ at its thickest and tapered off in either direction. I don’t have exact slope angles but it was interesting to see the slide start on a surprisingly low slope angle (felt like less than 30) and then propagate to a steeper slope. Although this wind slab was the textbook lens-shape, it filled in a saddle and wasn’t obvious to see the shape until looking at the crown, it did however sound hollow and other warning signs were present. I was not expecting a wind slab on this aspect but the wind loading was clear to see from the sastrugi and predominant wind direction on the north side.
Weather: Sunny and low 20s
Snowpack: Still some soft in the shadiest and most sheltered places but largely affected by wind and sun elsewhere. Snowpack is relatively deep for mid-February but we need new snow.
Date of Observation: 02/12/2022
Name: Frank Stern
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: 9,600 to 11,000′, NE, N, E, SE slopes
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Two loose snow avalanches, E aspect, 11,000′, 35 degree slope
Weather: Sunny
Snowpack: 1″ fresh
Date of Observation: 02/11/2022
Name: Evan Ross
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Traveled a variety of places, but primary headed strait to NTL elevations targeting wind slabs.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Triggered 1 notable wind slab over facets. East 11,300ft. The crown was 1 to 10 inches thick and released on well-developed near surface facets. There were 2 thin slabs stacked on top of each other with another layer of facets between them. Those slabs were pencil hard. The crown was around 30 to 40 feet wide and ran downhill the same distance. I was intentionally cutting this test slope. The avalanche didn’t release until I had buried my ski under the hard snow and was jerking things around to get it out.
The only other results were in very similar terrain in another location. Here the wind board was only 1 to 2″ thick and the resulting avalanches ran more like sluffs with little propagation over the very weak and faceted snowpack below.
While walking the dog in the morning I triggered a couple of sluffs with my hands off the side of the rec path. The dog was smart enough to not go over there.
Weather: Clear sky became partly cloudy. Warm and breezy. Didn’t see much for snow transport.
Snowpack: There still are some nice soft turns to be had out there. I headed straight from the trailhead to suspect NTL slopes and didn’t really muck around with anything else.
Photos:
Date of Observation: 02/11/2022
Name: Josh Jones
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Double Top south ridge to summit, down waterfall creek.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few small dry loose slides observed above the ranch. NW 10000′ see photo
Weather: 28 Degrees
0/8 Skycover
NW winds were hounding on me all day
Snowpack: Crusty faceted snow on the south ridge, almost corn in spots with todays sun.
Northeast facing terrain down waterfall creek: ATL/NTL wind slab mixed with some recycled powder. BTL soft facets.
Photos:
Date of Observation: 02/10/2022
Name: Chris Martin
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Lindley hut to friends hut, traveled Copper Creek from Lindley hut to Pearl Pass.
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: None
Weather: 2/10 – Windy
Snowpack: Observation from 2/10: 5-15 cm wind slab formation on NTL, N facing slopes observed in Copper Creek area (traveling lindley hut to friends hut).
Observed many Cracks and Collapses in newly formed wind slabs, found mostly in NTL, N facing terrain where terrain could create extra sensitive wind catches. Minimal formation observed in ATL Terrain. Tested a few smaller slopes, Hard slabs were not releasing on 30-35* slopes
Date of Observation: 02/11/2022
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Through cement plant up a well established track. Lots of skiing done here, tracks all through the woods and gullies. coming out of the woods going up the standard ridge pointing north. About 2/3 up on the ridge leading to the flatter part we were right on the rounded edge on a 20 ish degree slope. If you would have bet me will it slide here I would have bet $100 with 99.999% certainty that this would never go. I would have lost that bet. 27 years in the backcountry, go figure.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: We heard a whoomp, I looked thinking it would just settle as it usually does, but in a moment it started moving and both skiers fell. Due to low angle movement was very slow, both skiers got held up in trees just 25 feet lower. In all a minor event, one lost pole no injuries, but a definite wake up call. The crown was all of 10″ tall tapering to 4″ to the north west. The whoomp propagated to the south around the edge of the ridge and set off another 45ft wide sluff of blocks 8 inches thick that ran down about 500 ft from the crown. It propagated to the top of the ridge about 100ft above the trigger.
Weather: Sunny, no wind, not too warm, but not too cold.
Snowpack: no new snow in weeks, an aging snow pack.
