Avalanches: No new avalanches observed.
Weather: Clear, light winds, and warming up.
Snowpack: Dug down to the storm interface in clearings on SE and SW aspects. SE had a fist hard slab sitting on a 2-3 cm melt freeze crust at the storm interface with no surface hoar present. It failed on mid slab instabilities as CTM SC but did not propagate during an ECT. With hard taps SE also failed on facets just below the crust but with irregular breaks. SW had 3-4, 1-2 cm melt freeze crusts in the top 50 cm with no surface hoar present. With medium to hard taps irregular failures occurred under the crusts.
A thin crust had formed at the surface on SE aspects and surface hoar was preserved at the surface through the afternoon. SW aspects were still wet at the surface during the afternoon and the surface hoar had been burned off.

Avalanches: SS-ASc-D1-I on a convex roll in a gully
SS-AMr-D1-I X2 on a small wind loaded roll.

South face of Teo had previously avalanched to its maximum trim line.
Weather: Clear skies, Calm winds with strong solar radiation and warm air temps.
Snowpack: South facing terrain in the brush creek zone has a noticeable shallower snow pack than the northerly portions of the compass. HS: 112cm. Snowpack on these south slopes was shallow due to a vary large avalanche during the early January natural cycle. Multiple large collapses observed on the up track accompanied by shooting cracks up to 30m away. Many of these collapses and cracks failed on the 1/19 interface 25cm down, while others were just the upper wind or sun crust shifting with the weight of a skier while it was softening under the sun. CT11 SC on the 19th interface failed on facets above a melt freeze crust. SW facing slope, 10,700′

At above treeline elevations the persistent slab problem was confined to wind loaded terrain features. The alpine terrain in the surrounding area looked very wind effected with similar terrain management necessary to avoid the avalanche problem.

On the shady side of the compass we observed snow depths hovering around 240cm. The 1/19th surface hoar interface was observed with a 40cm, fist to 4f slab sitting above. ECTN 11 NE aspect 10,500′. Below the surface hoar was a 4f to 1f mid pack.

Facets above a thin crust at the 19th interface were the weak layer in todays triggered slabs. The crust was often very aerated looking like in the shadow of this picture.

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Remotely triggered wind loaded slab failing on the 19th interface.

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10-12″ skier triggered wind loaded slab failing on the 1/19 interface.

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South face of Teo had previously avalanched to its maximum trim line. This is a poor picture for representation, but large trees were down on both sides of the valley at the previous maximum runout. Old Crown looked to have crossed the entire face. the aspen trees on the leading edges of those aspen groves in the middle of the path, had been push over.

Avalanches:
Weather: Clear and calm, warming from ~0-20*F with strong solar radiation.
Snowpack: Several collapses (estimated 20-30m radius) in open meadows and low-angle aspen groves. Found the Jan 19th interface ~40cm down with surface hoar above a crust and facets below it. No snowpack tests. Presence of the surface hoar was enough information to know we wanted to avoid traveling on or under steep slopes.

A new layer of surface hoar was widespread but more pronounced in the valley bottom and a thin, soft crust was present on steep slopes at 0930 this morning.  By 1300, steep southerly slopes were moist again, but low-angle terrain still harbored unburied surface hoar despite the strong solar radiation.

Avalanches: Nothing new. Some crowns on various aspects NTL that likely ran during 1/23 cycle. See photos.
Weather: Light winds with no transport observed around the range. Mild temps. Thin few to scattered clouds.
Snowpack: Near treeline, there was 20 to 25 cm of F+ to 4F- slab above surface hoar in 4 different pits. Easy, sudden collapse results in compression tests, Q2 sheers in tilt tests, and no propagation in ECTs. The surface hoar is harder to ID on northerly aspects because it is surrounded by DF’s. On SW aspects, the recent persistent slabs were spottier in distribution due to wind scouring last week, but I dug into one SW pitch that I wouldn’t normally expect to find SH (due to its windward/sunny location) and it was still there. We got several small collapses and some moderate cracking in drifted areas along a low angle ridgeline.
Below treeline, there was only ~15 cm of recent snow over Jan 19 interface, and it has all faceted on northerlies or crusted on southerlies, so the persistent slab problem is a non-issue here, just minor facet sluffing. Surfaces are weakest below treeline right now from the wild inversions with widespread near surface facets and patchy surface hoar extending up to NTL on shady aspects. Moistening surfaces on steep southerlies.

D1. West aspect NTL.

2x D2 NE aspect NTL

Near surface faceting and patchy surface hoar on shaded aspects.

NE aspect NTL. CTE, SC on buried SH.

SW aspect NTL. CTE, SC on buried SH over a crust.

D1. NE aspect NTL.

D1.5 NW aspect NTL.

Avalanches: Popped this from the skinner on White. East, 12000 feet prob 1 foot deep most. Lots of cracking/collapsing on on the way up, seems touchy w wind slabs up there
Weather:
Snowpack:

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Avalanches: Observed one D2 wind slab slab on a west aspect ATL and one D1.5 point release on a SE aspect NTL that entrained a solid amount of snow on its way down. Also jumped around on some steep rollovers below Gothic Rd but nothing budged other than some minor facet sluffing.
Weather: See profile. Few clouds with light winds. Cold.
Snowpack: See profile. SH layer was decomposing and hard to identify without tests. Yet again it produced non propagating results in tests.

Jan-28-Snodgrass-Pit

Avalanches: SS-R1-D2-AE-O 30-100cm deep crown X 40ft wide, 36* bed surface at start zone. As it ran over the cliff it triggered a ~100cm slab below on the apron, which is very similar aspect & angle as yesterday’s D2 below Pre-Evac/NC Apron. F-4F-1F slab over thin FC layer resting on smooth, untraveled MFcr.

Below Thin Line:
SS-R1-D1-AB-O ~30cm deep X 80Ft wide X ~45ft high pocket that stopped
on treed bench. Same layering as on Bender slide
Weather:
Snowpack: 3 collapses: 1 Medium collapse with ~35ft shooting crack ~45cm down (same layering as above) ~60ft West of the D1 below Thin line on ~20* bench. This was after a 6# hand charge (60ft above crack) at the base of the cliff dropped a sizeable cornice that ran ~250ft downhill & did not collapse this layer. 1 small collapse on Crotch ~30* slope after 1st cover shot ~15ft away from crater. Below Dogleg RT on Sunny shoulder: Small collapse on ~*30 top of rolls over 1 snowpit on Sunny Shoulder RT, Thin rocky spot 1/2 down slope, HS 105cm, bottom 60cm FC ~3mm, above: alternating Mfcr & FC layers. ECTN

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Avalanches: A couple naturals in the past 24 hours and what appeared to be a snowmobile triggered slide across Kebler Road today.
Weather:
Snowpack:

D1 across Kebler Road.  Looks like it was probably snowmobile triggered today. SSE aspect BTL