Date of Observation: 02/07/2022
Name: Tim Brown

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: SE side of Gothic Mtn

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Shaded easterly aspects near treeline w/ 1.5-2m snow depth: Ski cuts on 35°+ slopes produced shallow dry loose snow avalanches that moved slowly and only entrained the top 6″ of faceted snow directly below tracks. Slopes needed to be around 40° for sluffs to gain enough mass and velocity to be self-sustaining and “pushy.” Got a couple collapses on old and isolated windslabs with propagation up to 5m around skis and up to 8″ deep, but quickly tapering at their margins.
Weather: Clear, calm, cool and cloud-free
Snowpack: Solid mid-pack with up to 6″ of facets or supportive crust with up to 2″ of facets on the surface

Date of Observation: 02/06/2022

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: From my house to the south end of Axtell and a little beyond. 8,900-11,000 feet. E, NE & NW aspects; mostly low angle.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: I was witness to the snow machine triggered slide that Evan described in his observation.
Weather: Lots of sunshine and little wind. Quite peaceful out there until my solitude was rudely interrupted by Evan on his sled ripping around and triggering avalanches😁
Snowpack: The alpine is quite wind-affected, but much of the rippled snow is still skiing well. Protected NW & NE, low-angle, BTL terrain is fast, faceted (but supportable) powder. Quite pleasant, really.

Date of Observation: 02/05/2022
Name: Jeff Smith

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Northeast face in the Southeast Mountains

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: People ask me all the time if animals trigger avalanches. Here’s proof that they do. A coyote dropped of this alpine ridge and set off 4 small point release surface sluffs of faceted snow. He was not caught or carried in the slides. The slides start and finish at the arrows in the photo.
Weather: Sunny and calm with temps in the 20’s at 11,000 ft. -25F at the trailhead.
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 02/04/2022
Name: BEN GRAVES

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Toured from Lost Lake into cirque below summit of East Beckwith.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Many R1 D1 natural slides on East/SE above tree line. 12000 ft on steep rocky slopes. ~6” crown. S
Two skier triggered R1 sluffs below tree line. Ski cut on Steep 45 degree north facing trees . Ran in new snow/top 10cm of highly faceted snow
Weather: Clear. No wind. Cold
Snowpack: At and below tree line the top 10+ cm of snow was highly faceted. Hard to skin on anything steeper than 30 degrees and completely
unconsolidated Some sun crust on east/SE slopes with 2-10 cm of new wind blown snow depending on aspect and trees. Small collapses were observed and felt at tree line. No propagation and get generally very stable. Sluffing on all steep shaded slopes but easy to avoid and manage.

Above tree line- 1-5 cm wind slab was starting to form on North facing slopes (12000 ft) not quite cardboard trap door but starting to get there.
East facing was the softest most rideable slopes ATL. SE had small natural avalanche activity.

Date of Observation: 02/03/2022
Name: Josh Jones

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Cement Mountain 9000′-11800′

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: 0/8 Clear
No flagging observed in CB, was seeing a bit over by Castle Peak blowing from the east.
Snowpack: On a northeast wind-drifted slope at 11300 I was able to get some cracking and few sizable chunks to slide off the previous interface. Snow depth was variable here. See photo-

Date of Observation: 01/30/2022

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: SE ridge Mineral Point

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Ski cuts along the south east ridge of Mineral Point produced 2 wet-loose slides.
Weather: Sunny, clear, light winds
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 01/29/2022
Name: J T

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Redwell east shoots

Observed avalanche activity: Yes

Avalanches: Kicked off a sluff on a north facing NTL shoot @35-40 degrees. Started small and ran the full length of the slope entraining a lot of snow, I would call it a loose snow avalanche. Appeared to be newer snow sliding on a previous crust layer.

Date of Observation: 01/29/2022
Name: Jack Caprio

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Mountain. Traveled on south and east aspects up to 12,600’

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: 1 Skier triggered D1 loose dry avalanche on a NE facing slope which sympathetically triggered a D1 wind slab on a ESE facing slope across the bowl. The wind slab was about 2-6 inches thick and propagated about 25 feet. The avalanches were small in size but ran through the some consequential terrain that would have been undesirable to take a ride in.

Weather: Sunny and clear. Calm winds.

Snowpack: NE facing alpine terrain skied great. Recent NE winds blew snow upslope and creating textured “doppel” snow. This terrain did not contain any slab, making the main avalanche problem loose dry sluffs.

E and SE alpine slopes have been loaded by recent winds creating isolated pockets of small winds slabs.

Date of Observation: 01/29/2022
Name: Andrew Breibart

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch Winter TH to Coneys via usual skin track

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Schukill Ridge-Wind slab, which appears to be skier triggered. Did not see this picture in Zach Guy’s obs. I saw another D1 wind slab that appears to be skiered trigged but I missed that photo op.
Sluff-Scarp Ridge
see photos.
Weather: calm, clear, and hot.
light breeze on ridge.
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 01/28/2022
Name: Eric Roberts/ Ben Ammon

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: 0800-16:45
We toured from Snodgrass TH towards “El Nacho”, descending into Queen Basin. We traveled along the southern ridgeline of White Rock Mountain and descended towards Copper Creek, into Gothic and back to Snodgrass TH.
No major incidents while encountering a variety of conditions. We did not conduct any formal snow tests.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: During our tour, a hard slab was remotely triggered from approx 50 ft. downslope of an near a 34°Convexity, adjacent to White Rock Mountains southern ridgeline at 12,590’.
Crown ranged from 2”-12”, averaging 8”, 40’ in width.
This potential wind slab moved with building energy as it slid approx. 300’ downslope.
Failure plane was above a stout Melt-freeze crust on small facets. (Not measured)
Skier was not affected, but anyone could have been put off balance if on slope.
Weather: Clear skies AM/PM with valley fog (8,000’) early morning out of forecast area to the south
Calm winds with sporadic, light NW winds ATL
-8°F @ 9,300 (0800) : strong inversion NTL
NO precipitation
Snowpack: Snowpack was a mixed bag at all elevations with the best quality snow being held in wind-sheltered terrain in pockets,
North facing ATL-NTL.
We encountered widespread, audible collapsing BTL initially touring out of East River, but encountered localized collapsing in exposed terrain ATL and along ridge lines.
Wind-packed pockets have slab quality and desperately want to slide but potentially a lack of continuity with some slope to keep them stubborn on exposed, North facing terrain.