Avalanches: We skier triggered one small soft slab, failing on Dec 6th facet layer, about 8″ thick and 25 feet wide. Harmless in size, and managed like a storm slab. SS-ASc-R1-D1-I
Weather: Overcast, S-1, calm winds below treeline with a few plumes and gusts observed up high, mild temps.
Snowpack: Below treeline, the structure remains shallow and faceted, but we are starting to see signs of instability with the new snow. A few shooting cracks and one collapse observed today on NE aspects below treeline. There is about 6-8″ very soft slab over the Dec 6th near surface facet layer (1mm, F hard), with facets to the ground below that. In a few areas, there is some lingering 4F midpack, faceting slab, and we got one collapse where this was overlying ~2mm basal facets. This seemed to be a fairly isolated concern where we traveled, and saw no other signs of instability on various slopes up to 40 degrees in steepness. My biggest concern is when we put a real slab on our Dec 6th facet layer, which was widespread across every slope we traveled on.

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Avalanches: 12,000′, East aspect, SS-N-R1-D1.5-I at the top of Purple Palace, ran from overnight winds. Crown only lightly filled in.

11,700′ Northeast aspect, SS-N-R1-D1-I off Schuylkill Mtn Southeast ridge. Crown still crisp, but shallow, highlighted in photo attached.
Weather: Broken skies became overcast with light snow and stinkin’ cold, getting colder from mid-morning on. Light North to Northwest winds.
Snowpack: 22cm of cold smoke buried the facets from the last week (Dec 6th interface). Above treeline, last night’s winds built fresh slabs, but in sheltered areas there’s no slab on the Dec 6th facets. The November snow is strengthening / sintering making a right-side-up base. No cracking or collapsing observed today while breaking trail into terrain with no prior tracks on North through East aspect. Test skiing and snowpack tests produced no results. That said, the December 6th facets will likely come to life if the snow forecasted for the weekend comes to life.

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Avalanches:
Weather: Broken skies, moderate to strong gusty SW winds with moderate snow transport. Trace accumulation mostly in the Am hours.
Snowpack: Little change from Zach’s observation in the same area on 12/7. 5″ new snow overnight in protected areas, was only around 2-3″ on most open slopes. That 2-3″ didn’t change anything in these areas and wasn’t cracking or showing much for signs of instability. A few very soft, very small, phone book slabs around at best. This new snow was sitting on wind-board and crusts buried on 11/7.

The new snow in this observed terrain was mostly being blown onto NE-SE slopes where we didn’t travel.

Avalanches:
Weather: OVC, L/M NW winds funneling down washington gulch S-1 from 12:00 onwards
Snowpack: SNOWPACK: BTL ENE. No signs of instability
HS40-5Ocm,
skipen 10-20cm
ftpen ground
Top~10cm loose facets/intermittent wind affected, often 4F/1F in open main valley
~25-30cm weak faceting mid pack but just supportive to 110mm skis
Bottom ~10cm large 2-4mmfacets/some polycrystals, almost cohesive enough to make a snowball

Avalanches: On a NE aspect NTL, we skier triggered a small soft slab, ~8″ thick, that ran about 1,000 feet and was D1.5 in size as it entrained a fair amount of snow. SS-AS-R1-D1.5-I. No other avalanches observed, but alpine views were obscured by clouds.
Weather: COLD. Calm to light westerly winds where we were with no snow transport, but I could see plumes of blowing snow off high peaks from the northwest. Periods of S-1, and broken skies.
Snowpack: See profiles. 5″ of new snow below treeline, drifts up to 8-10″ near treeline. Not much wind effect in this area. Below treeline lacks slab cohesion for avalanche concerns; some minor cracking in the new snow but no other signs of instability or propagating test results. Small grained facet layers could be problematic with future storms. Same for southeast aspects near treeline. Some minor cracking in the new snow, but no load right now on a concerning facet/crust layer. On a due north, near treeline slope ~11,300 ft, we found the unnerving 11/18 interface (3-4 mm, fist hard depth hoar) below a 75 cm cohesive slab. This layer appeared to be discontinuous due to patchy coverage and/or ground surface roughness. Non propagating ECT results but sudden collapse CT results. No signs of instability while jumping hard above the slope of concern, but we chose to avoid that slope and steer towards a NE pitch that didn’t hold the depth hoar layer.

N aspect NTL

SE aspect NTL

NE aspect BTL

Minor cracking under foot at the new snow interface, both on shaded aspects (on NSF) and sunny aspects (MFcr)

Debris pile from a small, skier triggered slab avalanche.

Avalanches:
Weather: The 24 hour total is 6½” new snow of 0.39″ of which 4½” and 0.29″came after dark. Snow started late afternoon and went moderately until 10 p.m. and then wind started, moderate but steady overnight with just light snow after that. Currently a little bit of clearing as temp. has dropped to the low of 5F. There is 17″ of snow on the ground and wind has turned light, though there was some drifting during the night. billy
Snowpack: