Date of Observation: 12/01/2022
Name: Dan Hohl
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Second Bowl uptrack, Coney’s.
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack: Collapse and shooting cracks observed on East facing slope Below Tree Line. Hasty pit showed a snow depth of 55cm with a failure interface 40cm below the surface, consisting of a crust/facet layer 2-3cm thick on top of depth hoar 2-3mm in size. The slab on top of this interface was 4F hardness.
Date of Observation: 11/30/2022
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Red Lady Glades
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Was a good size cornice break just above tree line.
Weather: Frigid and calm
Snowpack: Frequent cracking and whomping in upper meadows on the way up.
Tips up buns down skiing .. pretty thin snowpack up there
Date of Observation: 11/30/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Mt. CB
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous D1.5- D2 soft slab avalanches on the eastern half of the compass that ran yesterday N/ATL. See photos and avy details below. Evidence of moving snow on numerous other N/BTL shaded slopes, just hard to classify because they ran earlier in the storm and crowns are filled in.
Date of Observation: 11/29/2022
Name: Travis Colbert
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Standard (mostly) route to the top of Snodgrass. 9,600-11,200 feet.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Remotely triggered a soft slab (D1) at the top of first bowl (NE aspect).
Weather: Overcast with light snow.
Snowpack: About 12″ of new snow on top of a trashpile of fascets. Shooting cracks and shattering cracks on any steeper terrain. Easily triggered the top of first bowl on my first step onto the convexity. No idea how far it ran, but I suspect pretty far.
Photos:
Date of Observation: 11/29/2022
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Walked around camo today right at Baxter basin. Didn’t really ski much it was too deep.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Snowpack: About two feet of fresh snow out there. Took an hour to sled. Very touchy, cracks with every step. Had one collapse and then bailed.
Photos:
Date of Observation: 11/29/2022
Name: Mark Robbins
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: AMR skinner, 7’s bowl, trees by skinner
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Naturals ran mid storm at skinner test slope, where the skinner crosses the suspect slope after the midway bench, steep side of baby bowl, east bowl.
Weather: Still snowing at 9 am, clear skies by noon. Cold and windy
Snowpack: Widespread shooting cracks, collapses, and whoomphs breaking trail on the skinner
Photos:
Date of Observation: 11/27/2022
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Climbed NTL: S, SE, E, NE; Skied ATL, NTL: NW, N, NE
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Saw a few D1-sized loose sluffs release naturally on leeward slopes triggered by active wind transport, which entrained top few inches of snow, and ran a few hundred feet in terrain ~35° in steepness.
Weather: Light snow; clear to cloudy; ATL winds from W, NW, N at ~20-30mph consistently
Snowpack: A huge range of snow conditions, depths, and structures. ~4 inches of new very dry snow NTL-ATL. Wind had transported up to ~6 inches of snow in leeward terrain by around noon.
No cracking or collapsing produced when skinning across suspect slopes with weak structure, and kicking cornices produced no results on slopes below.
New/wind transported snow was not stiffened yet and so made for decent skiing.
At lower more Easterly terrain snow was either icy, wind-stiffened, or sun-affected.
Date of Observation: 11/27/2022
Name: billy barr
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic townsite
Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: This was the first measurable snowfall in 17 days so if just to keep in practice, here is the info. Just ½” new snow and water content 0.05″. Snowpack has held at 6″ deep for weeks though dropped to 5½” yesterday but now back at 6″. Total snowfall so far this winter ranks 49th of the past 50 years. That tells you something. Snow on the ground is rotten. Cleared towards sunrise and it is mild with yesterday’s high 43F and currently the morning low of 20F. With all the clear weather the daily lows have been below average but highs above, but overall a cool month.
Date of Observation: 11/26/2022
Name: Turner Petersen
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Toured with Owen Berv and Holden Bradford up Baxter basin on the Schuylkill side of the basin. Fully changed our tour plan to avoid crossing a wind loaded gully above exposure that we were concerned about after noticing more sensitive than expected small wind slabs when skinning over lower angle convexities lower in the drainage.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: While skiing we all got slow moving facet sluffs to run a good 800’. Not concerning in the terrain we skied but could be in more extreme terrain.
Weather: Sunny. Slight Winds from the west.
Snowpack: Thin. 40 Cm’s?
Date of Observation: 11/26/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains and Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Driving tour, Gothic Road, Washington Gulch, Slate River, and Kebler Pass
Observed avalanche activity: No
Snowpack: The northern half of the compass has continuous snow coverage at all elevations. We know the snow there is weak and faceted. Coverage continues around the southern half of the compass above treeline, except for the shallowest areas or wind-eroded slopes on the southwest quadrant. Below treeline, most slopes have melted out on SE, S, SW aspects. The sunnier halves of W and E have some melted-out slopes as well, especially in the shallower parts of the forecast area. A few example photos below. All photos are here.
