Avalanches: No signs of current avalanche activity in the area we were skiing . Some old evidence of activity on steeper slopes .
Weather: Calm, partly sunny with high clouds
Snowpack: No signs of instability . Snowpack was quite supportable . Surface facets apparent from cold temps

Avalanches:
Weather: Increasing clouds; calm winds; cold temps (-1F at 0915 @ TH /// 10F @ 1400 @ TH)
Snowpack: HST is definitely settling rapidly and consolidating into a soft slab. Ski Pen while breaking trail all day was about 20cm, while Boot Pen was full depth. Overall HS in this zone was 80-110cm. New surface hoar growth also observed on lower valley slopes. Got two thundering collapses (shaking snow off surrounding trees) when traveling in untouched low angle NE facing timbered terrain, but other then that, we saw no other signs of instability on other aspects, despite traveling on slopes just touching up into the 35* zone. But the Spx structure here was also mostly all F and 4F recent storm snow over either bare ground, or very very small thin depth hoar pockets, and seemed to lack any propagation propensity or strong over weak layering in general. Hand Shear and Shovel Tilt Tests produced no results. Things are changing fast though, as the rapid settlement continues, and there could be more of a cohesive slab on these aspects by tomorrow even, if it stays warm and sunny.

Avalanches: Evidence that nearly all of Mt. Axtell flushed during the recent avalanche cycle. Photos to come. Most crowns are faintly visible now, obscured by winds/snow, but very large (D3, broken trees) debris piles in the valley bottoms of 6th Bowl, 5th Bowl (Green Lake Cirque), 4th Bowl, and 3rd Bowl. Crowns evident in 1st and 2nd Bowl but debris piles didn’t hit valley floor. The crown in 6th bowl was still visible and wrapped all the way around from the north facing side of the bowl to the south facing side of the bowl. Large crowns still visible on Carbon Peak (northerly aspects N/BTL), in the Anthracites (E aspects A/NTL), and on the South side of Axtell (SE, and E aspects N/BTL).
Weather: Very cold temps (multiple puffys) warmed to T-shirt skinning weather in the afternoon on sunny aspects. Clear skies, light SW winds.
Snowpack: Spent the whole day breaking trail in previously untracked terrain, on steep, densely gladed north aspects and open, low angle southerly aspects at all elevations. Noticeably fewer collapses than previous days, but we still got 4 or 5 large ones, initiated by jumping on the snowpack. Scariest snowpack structure was observed on a SW aspect above treeline, where there was a hard wind crust capping a very weak facet layer under our recent slab (~2 feet thick); this seemed to be inhibiting settlement and strengthening of the layer, and we got one large collapse initiated without jumping. On less wind-affected slopes, the slab and weak layer interface was still soft enough that we could impact the weak layer by jumping, but just not seeing the same widespread zip in the snowpack.
Reverse cornices from recent NE winds, and shallow, stiff windslabs with cracking on SW aspects near treeline. Top few inches of snow surface became moist on southerly aspects today.
We descended a steep NE bowl near/above treeline that had avalanched during the cycle. Snowpack structure was about a foot of low density snow over dirt or crusty bedsurface. No signs of instability but plenty of rocks to ding.

E aspect BTL on Axtell

6th Bowl on Axtell. SE to S aspect shown, crown wrapped below the photo to N aspects as well

Crowns on Carbon, N aspect N/BTL.

Crowns visible in Anthracites. E, NE, SE aspects

Crown height on Axtell ~3.5 feet

1st Bowl on Axtell

Avalanches: One large slide on NE facing bowl of Cement Mountain from last storm.  size 2.5
Weather: Clear, calm, FRIGID in drainage.
Snowpack: depth of snow (HS) noticeably increased with elevation and distance up cement creek. HS at Cement Creek Ranch was around 50cm, where out near Reno turnoff the HS was 80-100cm.

Dug pit on slight west facing slope, 9800ft. HS 80cm. CT7, CT12, CT9, all sudden collapse right on the ground. 4-6mm cupped depth hoar, F-hardness with 1F>F hard slab above (65cm deep). scary (firm slab, less deep than CB zone, more likely human weight will effect.. On sled, so didnt hear or feel any collapses but roosting was tough with track gouging to weak snow near ground. Trapdoor.

21051227CementTrench

Avalanches:
Weather: 0945 @ 9500; Clear, Calm, -3ºC; Surf: V
1100 @ 9800’; Clear, Calm, -3ºC; Surf: V; HS: 100cm; SkiPen: 10cm; BootPen: 60cm
1215 @ 10,300′; Clear, Calm, -6ºC; Surf: V; HS: 120cm; SkiPen: 10cm; BootPen: 50cm
1315 @ 10,700’; Clear, Calm, 0ºC; Surf: +; HS: 90cm; SkiPen: 10cm; BootPen: 40cm
1415 @ 9,700’; Clear, Calm, -4.5ºC; Surf: V; HS: 90cm; SkiPen: 10cm; BootPen: 70cm
Snowpack: Fewer whumpfs than yesterday; but the ones we got were massive – mostly confined to shady, low-angle pockets. Moderate hand shears on small slopes over 30º with failures anywhere from 20cm to 40cm down. Consistent skipen throughout the day and the slab seems to be gaining strength quickly. The surface snow around 10,500’ (SW) got warm enough to be called moist in the early afternoon, as the temp climbed above freezing and the sun was strong. A thin crust will form there. Didn’t observe any shooting cracks at any point during the day. We skied one, short, 32º slope and had no signs of instabilities.

I don’t like this snowpack right now. Last week’s snow seems to be gaining strength really quickly. Today was the second day in a row when I felt like I could feel the snow changing drastically as the day went on. But the skiing is getting a lot better. I think it would be easy to get a false sense of security right now. I plan on keeping my mindset at “assessment” for a few-more days at least and want to keep consequences at the front of my mind.

Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack: Significant settlement after the x-mas storm. Ski pen ~20cm deep. No collapses observed from our party or another that broke trail in since xmas storm.

Hoped to ski Big Chute since it looked like it slid from Kebler Pass road. When we got there, we couldn’t see any debris at the bottom or make out a crown, so we backed off and ducked into the trees, avoiding Big Chute. Skied down to bottom of NW bowl, second lap in 7-bowl to skin track trees.

Appears that we’re in the early stages of a long period low likelihood, high consequence avalanche activity. Fortunately, there’s lots of terrain that slid during the storm, so there’s many options to avoid the lurking persistent slab problem.

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