Date of Observation: 02/20/2021
Name: Marcel Medved
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Anthracite Mesa at Elkton
Aspect: East
Elevation: 11,000′
Avalanches: 2 fresh avalanches (Friday?), entire hill sides and 1 smaller older slide CBAC Note: These slides were first reported 2/14.
Weather: Saturday morning 9:30am Sunny, 20F, calm
Snowpack:
Photos:
Date of Observation: 02/21/2021
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Axtell skin track & kebler road
Aspect: North, South
Elevation: N 10,400 & S 9,500
Avalanches: none
Snowpack: We skied axtell skin track today…. avy course;chose site to demonstrate the difference between tree bomb influence of PWL’s in snowpack BTL and “open glades” where there is little effect from the canopy.
Pit #1: @10,400 due N @ 360* in a 20mx20m opening in the tight mature forest:
2 x ECTP (22 & 28) SC (informal, cleared off the top 25cm of F fluff b/c HS is 145cm) failed 25cm above the ground/120cm down on 4-5mm FC.
Slab is 4F & 1F+
Pit #2 5m away from pit #1: ECTX (presumably heavily influenced by the canopy & tree bombed out, as HS was 95cm and ~1.5m from 3 mature spruce arranged in a triangle
Pit # 3 Just off Kebler road at the Axtell weather station/sled park S 162* ECTP (28) SC 25cm up from ground on 4-5mm FC in (CO shit sandwich of MFCR & FC layers) HS 80cm
Date of Observation: 02/21/2021
Name: Cosmo Langsfeld
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Cement Creek Ranch
Elevation: 9250’
Weather: <1” of new snow overnight.
Date of Observation: 02/20/2021
Name: Emilio Alcala
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Axtell Skin Track Glades
Aspect: North
Elevation: 10,050
Avalanches:
Weather: Mostly Sunny, West winds building, Warm-Hot in the sun, Cold in the shade.
Snowpack: 2 dig sites, 20 ft apart. Site 1 open relatively open glades, Site 2 tuckered in near tighter trees.
Site 1 HS 140cm, ECTP H
Site 2 HS 90cm, ECT N
Visually different basal layers, tree bomb compression/distrubance? (peppered as shown in photo from nearby, +/- 100m from dig)
Photos:
Date of Observation: 02/19/2021
Name: Ian Havlick
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Scarp ridge/Indy Basin/Elk Basin/Mount Emmons
Aspect: East, South East, South, South West, West
Elevation: 9,000-12,400
Avalanches: SS-N-R2-D2-O. Natural Persistent slab avalanche failing within last 24hrs on SE facing, heavily windloaded slope aet 12,000ft. Looked to have failed initally from cornice or additional windloading on 2/3 layer then quickly stepping down to rock on steep faceted slope. Debris ran far and entrained surprising amount of debris.
Weather: Cold. Blustery WNW winds 10-20 G40. Overcast. no new snow accumulation, minimal solar radiation.
Snowpack: Below and near treeline slopes ranged from 120-150cm+ in terrain traveled. Above treeline snowpack was variable as expected and scoured near ridgetop as per usual. Interesting reverse loading occurring with eroded cornices and deeper than expected sections of Scarp, especially above Evans Basin near the Gunsight Road. Pole probing continues to reveal poor structure with weak facets near the ground, although closer to 2-3mm facets in terrain I poked at. We traveled conservatively and assessed recent wind loading in terrain traveled and well as guarded against larger and wider slides given the structure
Photos:
Date of Observation: 02/19/2021
Name: chris Baldwin
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: WSW Snodgrass, open bowl
Aspect: South West
Elevation: 10700
Avalanches: HS-N-R2D1? ~35deg start zone, running into gully. CBAC note: we believe this is a slide first reported last week.
Weather: mild, W winds building on ridges, sun in and out
Snowpack: pit ~200′ above crown, HS 130cm, 30cm NS / 70cm 4F-1F slab / 30cm ~3-4mm DH
CT28 on DH, ECTN propagated on DH after some spirted extra credit taps
Photos:
Date of Observation: 02/20/2021
Name: Andrew Breibart
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Mt Emmons
Aspect: East, South East
Elevation: ATL, BTL, NTL
Avalanches: Photo from south ridge of Mt. Emmons facing west towards Kebler pass. This modified photo shows an avalanche in Beckwith Range which may have been captured in the blitzkrieg of avalanche observations the past 2 weeks. Looks like D1/1.5 from afar.
Weather: Excellent visibility today with some cloud cover
BTL: light winds and hot. no jacket or gloves.
NTL/ATL: moderate winds with gusts transporting snow into the bowl via cross-loading pattern. Loading didn’t seem to be significant during my tour. Colder temperatures ATL: puffy and winter gloves.
Snowpack: Red Lady Glades: BTL-heavier moisture laden snow which was like skiing wet powder on southern aspects in Tahoe in February and March.
Photos:
Date of Observation: 02/20/2021
Name: Michael Futch
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Red lady bowl below red coon ridge
Aspect: South
Elevation: 12000
Avalanches: Saw it from the skin track, looks like it started from the ridge
Weather: Calm wind, 14 degrees, partly cloudy
Snowpack:
Photos:
Date of Observation: 02/18/2021
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Slate
Aspect: North East, South West, West
Elevation: BTL
Avalanches: Two pockets pulled out across the valley that I did not see earlier. None seen near, around or above us except for some small surface stuffs.
Weather: awesome
Snowpack: I did not dig, probe or prod so I cannot say. Punched through the “midpack” on one old man air onto short 38-degree pitch did not propagate anything. Ski pen 8-10 inches when skiing.
Photos:
Date of Observation: 02/17/2021
Name: Steve Banks
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: RLG
Aspect: North, South East
Elevation: 9800-11800
Avalanches: Looks the the “Spade” on the north side of Whetstone ran again Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. See photo.
Weather: Sunny am with increasing clouds and overcast by noon. Warm-ish with minimal wind
Snowpack: Dry, supportive, fun! Seems like we have developed a snowpack finally. Still variable but mostly supportive to skis. No collapsing or crack while on the established skin track. Hints of a sun crust on SE-S facing slopes but mostly cold, dry snow.
Photos:
