AVALANCHES: R-2 D1 sliffing in new snow. no persistent slab activity in well protected true north. NEXT to a tree line but in the open on 1500 vert foot face.
observed some huge hang fire not in my drainage but ready to go. Thankfull to be in the North Paradise Zone with a little more depth and consistency in the pack. Not much wind in the last 5 days and in yesterdays snowfall.

WEATHER: Sunny and warm

SNOWPACK: Solid pack, recent 12-16 staying reasonably well behaved. True North aspect. some minor sluffing in the new snow . Skied on completely shaded north face on pitches up to 45 degrees. Saw some R 2 D1 sluffs in a convexity and below rock bands but super solid in my non cross loaded slice. Isolated a column at the top of face 120 CM deep . Had to beat the sheet out of it to get it to move.

Avalanches: Old Avalanche way left in Bowl in classic convexity. A couple very small slides observed off West face Gothic just below ridgetop, A couple small shallow windslabs far end of Schuykil Ridge. Also small insignificant D1 or smaller.

Weather: Clear, high temps felt in the 20’s, strong solar radiation, light wind. Winds up high blowing plumes off Gothic peak and Baldy looked North, maybe North East.

Snowpack: Skied far left side of bowl, avoiding steeper convex roll. First turn of the ridge skis punched through a lot of the snowpack. On tenth turn my partner felt a small collapse right below the ridge that produced a 15′ wide crack. Skiing was feeling trap door ish with very weak mid pack. Windloading patterns on Gothic and Schuykil Ridge looked from winds out of the NNW.

Avalanches: This hard slab avalanche appears to have stepped down around the cliff band. Observed 10th of January but expected failure occurring post late December cycle.

Weather: Sunny, 29 degrees F.

Uploads:

Avalanches: Wet Slab off Cinnamon ran from ice cliffs to valley bottom. 8-15 inch crown ran approximately 1500 feet and left debris at “valley of Death” 20 feet high. Appeared to be 1-2 days old.

Snowpack: Prolonged High Pressure. Facets on the North…. Melt Freeze on the Solar aspects

Uploads:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/11/2015

Weather: Snowfall exceeded the forecast, picking up 15cm (6″) by the end of the day, yahoo! West winds drifted the new snow as it fell.

Snowpack: 2 significant collapses on West aspects, both failing on the Dec 13 faceted interface. One slightly South of west, a second slightly North of west. On the second one, there was no old sun crust under the new snow and the slab was 4F to F+ hard, but even with the slab as not stiff as it was, it was still able to propagate ~70′ across a small 36 degree roll (see photo). Not that the Jan 11th snow changed the load on the Dec 13th layer to a great extent yet, but it’s a good reminder that as the snow loads grow, so will the distribution of the persistent slab problem, to include the weaker/shallower areas on the sunny side of the compass.