Date of Observation: 03/21/2021
Name: Andrew Breibart

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Coneys
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: BTL

Avalanches: NA-poor visbility.
Weather: Mostly calm winds on the tour with light winds on the ridge line. Skies were obscured and snowfall rate was S1/S2.
On the skin out skies were obstructed with scattered S-1 snowfall. Winds picked up and were light with moderate gusts in the valley bottom.
Snowpack: Less than 3 inches of new snow in the skin track in the morning. On the leeward side of Convex Corner, snow depth was 5 inches. In the valley bottom, snow was not supportive on upper melt freeze crust. Snow in First Bowl was supportive. Triggered a shallow slough in the new snow that traveled on top of the upper melt freeze crust at the entrance to the bowl. The slough had little energy and may have traveled 25 feet.
The skin track on the exit had a trace of new snow.

Date of Observation: 03/20/2021
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: North bowl of Cement
Aspect: North
Elevation: 12,000

Avalanches: Large natural persistent slab avalanche ran sometime after Friday at 2 pm. First observed on Saturday from a distance on Star Pass. This path ran back in February. Given the aspect and elevation, this was likely a dry slab that was triggered by surface warming.
 

Photos:

Date of Observation: 03/20/2021
Name: Cam Smith

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location:
Aspect: South, West
Elevation:

Avalanches: 1x Wet slab on a W facing BTL slope that seemed to gouge to the ground and ran a surprising distance down a gulley. Maybe 100 ft. wide and ran ~1,000 ft. I like to think it was animal triggered based on the tracks going in then tracks coming out in a lower spot. But that might just be me believing what I want to believe for the sake of drama. (CBAC Note: Comparing some old observations this looks like the crown of an old avalanche reported in February that has a more melted out and wet appearance now. Guess it needs to snow more…)

Weather: Wasn’t the scorcher we expected in the morning

Snowpack: Crusts weren’t quite frozen solid on some lower angle slopes and places with any hint of shade. Loose wet activity on S and W faces of Gothic above treeline. If you dig skiing bulletproof crusts let me know I have all kinds of secrets for finding the least pleasant conditions.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 03/17/2021

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Carbon Peak North Bowl
Aspect: North
Elevation: 11,200

Avalanches: While making initial turns into the N Bowl on Carbon Peak, I triggered large shooting cracks that propagated 15+ meters on either side of me. After the slope fractured, the slab did not slide on a mid 30-degree slope. I was able to climb out of the start zone and we descended through low angled terrain.
Weather:
Snowpack: Throughout the day we had skied NE and SW facing terrain on Axtell without notable signs of instability. On a N aspect of Carbon Peak @ 11,200 feet, we did not find an obvious crust layer at the 3/10 interface. Snowpack tests resulted in an ECTN 26, and a CTH 25 RP, both failing in the upper snowpack. Based on the characteristics of the fracture (it appeared very deep) and the lack of instability in the upper snowpack, it seems like I may have found a trigger for one of the deeper layers in our snowpack. In retrospect, our slope of choice was perhaps a predictable location for impacting deeper weak layers.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 03/17/2021
Name: Erin Sanborn

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: ENE aspect of Wolverine Basin
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 11,400

Avalanches: Skier triggered shallow soft slab (crown approx 6″) around 11:45 AM. Relatively wide crown (see photo – not sure on scale, circle on photo is where the skier dropped in); slough stopped approx 2/3 down the aspect. Skier able to ski out of the moving snow. It appeared that another slab on skier’s right was also triggered; possible remote trigger further skier’s left under a cornice (the party of 4 was not certain if the latter slide noted was there at start of ski – unable to determine from above cornice, but worth noting). Second photo shows smaller slab that was likely triggered remotely. This was the first skier to descend, making some of the observations from above difficult to determine.
Weather: Mid-20s; partly sunny; morning wind when skiing up Red Lady, but not wind at the time of the event.
Snowpack: One very small roller noted on the aspect that was skied. We noticed what appeared to be a natural wet slide was noted in Red Well basin on the east facing aspect earlier in the morning.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 03/15/2021
Name: Andrew Breibart

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Coneys
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: BTL

Avalanches: NA-poor visbilility.

Weather: Skin up: S1 snowfall with a trace of new snow accumulation. Calm. Temperatures were around freezing. Cloud cover was obstructed.
Descent: mostly cloudy and calm.

Snowpack: 1 to 3 inches of new snow in the skin tracks. Observed about 3 inches of new snow on the ridge and on the leeward side of the ridge, there were 6 inches of snow. Skied between 1st bowl and Convex corner and snow was very supportive. One ski partner observed cornice formation above first and second bowl.