Date of Observation: 01/05/2022
Name: Turner Petersen Grace von Mett
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Normal anthracites skin track. Skied sevens.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Natural wind slab breaking 4” thick probably running 50 feet and propagated probably 30 feet. On friendly Finnish. NNE.
Weather: Windy. Stormy.
Snowpack: Deep.
Date of Observation: 01/04/2022
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Standard Red Lady skin track from the Kebler TH to the Summit.
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: Calm and pleasant at the trailhead. Air temps in the 20’s but wind chill must have been -20 at and above tree-line. Eric said on the radio this morning that the jet stream was going to be dipping in our direction; he was spot on, as it felt like we were actually in the jet stream! Sustained SSW winds in the 30-40mph range with gusts much higher than that. I got blown over once and stopped to brace myself several times. Ended up wearing a puffy and full buff on the climb near and above tree-line, which is rare for me…
Snowpack: We were hoping for some recycled powder in the bowl but were (un)pleasantly surprised to find a widespread and inpenetrable windslab throughout caused by strong down slope winds. I suppose the old tracks rising up and out of the snow should have been a clue. The best turns were down lower and anywhere there was a rippled texture to the snow surface. Although there was plenty of wind, there didn’t seem to be much available snow for transport: the ridges are quite scoured.
Date of Observation: 01/02/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: East and West Beckwith
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Widespread deep slab activity from the 12/31 cycle on north to east aspects, generally in the D3 range. Some older debris piles as well.
Date of Observation: 01/03/2022
Name: Travis Colbert
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Kebler TH up the west ridge of Elk Basin to Scarp Ridge down the east ridge to Copely Lake and back down the lower east ridge. Mostly S, SE & SW terrain.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Older D1 off the west ridge into Elk Basin (SE aspect) that ran a few hundered feet. Maybe remote trigger from a snowmobile (tracks in the basin) or natural? Also saw a crown on the east face of Owen (picture is bad) and crowns on the north side of Carbon (in the big cirque from the summit and the lower cirques).
Weather: Sunny. Very little wind. Cold.
Snowpack: No signs of instability. I was mostly on <30 degree slopes but dipped into some 32-34 degree along the way. The slab feels very deep. Ski pen 10-15 cm. Windboard above treeline, but dense powder everywhere else.
Date of Observation: 01/03/2022
Name: Cosmo L
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Cement Mtn. NW-N-NE 9200-12200′
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Cornice failure or small windslabs on N-NE terrain just below ridgetops. Didn’t seem like it stepped down into deeper layers, or maybe it happened early enough in storm to bury the evidence?
Weather: Clear and calm.
Snowpack: 60-130 cm. Deeper in some windloaded spots. Largely supportive. 6-8″ ski pen. A few lower elevation, northfacing spots with shallower snowpack have lost supportiveness over the last couple days. Got one collapse on low angle windloaded NW terrain @ treeline (big pillows behind tree fence on ridgtop). Lots of surface hoar on north facing terrain.
Date of Observation: 01/02/2022
Name: Kirk Haskell
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Caves Cutoff to Caves Bowl
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: None in the area. Large settlements on way up ski track on areas where there had been snow leftover from previous storms.
Weather: Clear , Calm , cold
Snowpack: 120cm at top. Most of the south face did not have snow previously before this big storm. About 10-20cm of facets at Ground.
Date of Observation: 01/02/2022
Name: Zach Guy and Zach Kinler
Zone: Northwest Mountains and Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Early a.m. flight circling most of the outer boundaries of the forecast area.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: We documented widespread persistent slab activity on north to east aspects above treeline in the Northwest Mountains, ranging from D3 to D4 in size. Most peaks in the Anthracites, Ruby Range, and near Paradise divide produced at least one destructive avalanche. The Southeast Mountains had fewer and smaller slides, generally D2.5 to D3.5 on the same aspects above treeline. There were a handful of persistent slabs on west aspects and southeast aspects as well. Very little activity on south and southwest aspects. Most of the activity that we documented was fresh enough that it likely ran during the 12/31 storm. There was clearly older debris from earlier in the week that is too obscured to document accurately. There were a few persistent slabs in the Southeast Mountains that ran as recently as last night or the day before, caused by windloading. We will be uploading photos and coding activity into our database over the next couple days. Until then, this link has photos of activity. https://drive.google.com/drive/u/2/folders/1Ecn5VY0f8MxaUjHjxu5TUvjq0KTdefoc
Date of Observation: 01/02/2022
Name: Zach Guy and Zach Kinler
Zone: Outside of forecast area
Route Description: Taylor Canyon southeast of CBAC forecast area. Traveled on SE to NE aspects BTL.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A couple of small persistent slabs from the storm in sparse glades below treeline on easterly aspects.
Weather: Cold, clear, calm
Snowpack: HS averaged 70 cm. We observed several rumbling collapses and a handful of localized cracks and collapses. Slabs are ~50 cm thick (up to 4F) over 2 to 3 mm facets. This area is quite a bit shallower and more reactive than what we have observed within our forecast area. I’m sharing it to highlight how human triggering is currently more likely if you are chasing objectives in areas that don’t typically have good coverage, such as Round Mountain or Walrod. With inversions locked in the canyon, slabs will be faceting away fairly quickly in wind protected terrain here.
Date of Observation: 01/02/2022
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: N/a
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: W sub ridge of white mountain
Weather: Na
Snowpack: Na
Date of Observation: 01/01/2022
Name: Ian Havlick
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Quick tour up Caves Trail in Cement Creek. Descended same route
Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Cold, Clearing, light northerly winds
Snowpack: HS 80-150cm, generally good structure but was wary of shady areas that have preserved 3-5mm facets near ground and near associated melt-freeze crust 80-100cm deep. Pretty significant wind transport evidence from previous day, variable re-distribution but generally stripped from southerly facing aspects during storm with northerly winds yesterday undoing that pattern. Dense storm slab, with 20cm ski pen.
