Date of Observation: 04/13/2022
Name: daniel kreykes
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: California bowl
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Super sluffy new snow on crust on open E/NE slopes with supportive crusts. Only a concern on the steepest entrance pitches, but first turns entrained a fair amount of new snow and ran 250-300′ into trees.
Weather: Cold
Snowpack: Nice light pow on crust
Date of Observation: 04/13/2022
Name: jeff banks
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Splains + Axtell Region
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: none observed
Weather: cold, overcast, light intermittent snow. ~1cm over the day.
Increasing Howling winds -can hear the train through the Kebler corridor. Plumes up on red Lady glades & Evan’s Basin (see photo below). New snow ripped away, down to dirty corn.
Snowpack: 2″ overnight, Storm Total 9″-11″ observed.
BTL: No sign of windslab on N + E slopes, just good riding snow quality.
Tree bombs increased from Zero to Widespread as winds increased through out the day + the old growth swayed. No wind effect on snow in open clearings BTL that we skied, just in the tree tops.
Hearsay: Ran into a skier finishing on Axtell 1st Bowl. He said the snow was sluffing in the narrow chutes through the old growth. Then became windslab in the open (poor quality skiing but not reactive under their skis)
Photos:
Date of Observation: 04/12/2022
Name: jeff banks
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Splains to Carbon
Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Variable:
Carbon light winds w/ sun breaking thru making it feel mild
Under the Kebler Cloud cap: cold + snowy, light winds except in Kebler Corridor
Snowpack: No signs of instability on Wind sheltered slopes.
Did not venture into areas with strong winds.
BTL Intense wind transport in the Kebler corridor
BTL Slopes, all Aspects outside the corridor no wind transport
Storm snow was stuck remarkably well on moist, unfrozen, old snow surface.
Splains region 7″
Carbon region 2″
Date of Observation: 04/08/2022
Name: jeff banks
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Up Red Lady glades via old road to billboard
Down Bowl
Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: 07:00 cold to 12:00 Mild on ridge lines + nearly calm
Snowpack: dense + firm in AM then softening nicely ~11:00
2-3inches of well bonded wind deposited up high, no signs of instability.
Fresh snow has not transformed enough to be great skiing until ~11,600 and then excellent, supportive corn to the valley floor.
Date of Observation: 04/08/2022
Name: Travis Colbert
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Brush Creek TH to Teo (8,900-13,200ft); S, SW & SE aspects.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Shallow (10cm), slow-moving, but very heavy wet slides on every turn from the summit through the rocks. Ran (creeped really) 1,000ft or so. Traversed into SW terrain for the bottom half of the run to find more firm snow. We were descending around 1:15. Should have listened to Zach and got to the top by 12:30!
Weather: Upper teens to start, but rapidly warming into the 40’s by mid-day. Not a cloud in the ski and even less wind than forecasted (like none). Nearly took my pants off on the skate out because I was too hot!
CBAC Note: Travis did win the Weston skis for most quality observations submitted this year. Thank you Travis, awesome job! Good luck beating the corn window now that you’re anchored down by fatter, heavier skis.
Photos:
Date of Observation: 03/31/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Mt. CB.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Could see about 10 slab avalanches in the Ruby Range that ran during yesterday or last night’s wind event, ranging from D1.5 to D2, generally above treeline. One gouging wet loose below treeline that looks like it ran Tuesday or maybe even Wednesday.
Weather: Thin cloud cover increased mid day.
Date of Observation: 03/30/2022
Name: Andrew Breibart
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Keystone snow course
Crested Butte snow course
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: NA
Weather: Early AM Keystone: obscured skies, 30 degrees F, light to moderate winds
Late AM and early PM: CB snow course: mostly cloudy and clearing, light to moderate winds, above freezing.
Snowpack: Keystone (lower Red Lady Glades): 2 inches of new snow. supportive: Average snow depth: 43 inches; average SWE: 14.6 inches; density 34%
CB snow course (Slate River Valley near town): 1 inch of new snow, which appeared to ablate within two hours on site. Unsupportive snow on and off skin tracks. We had ski pen 2 to 4 inches while skinning. Average snow depth: 39 inches; average SWE: 12.7 inches; density 32%. Had melt water at the bottom of the pack in 4 of 12 samples. (side note: Slate River is starting to have increased runoff relative to the winter low flow).
Date of Observation: 03/29/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Roadside hand pits in the lower Slate and Mt. CB area, 7 a.m.
Observed avalanche activity: No
Snowpack: Cloud cover and snow last night made for a worse refreeze than any of the previous nights. In some locations, there was a soft, thin crust with unsupportive wet snow below. Where that setup exists, it felt like a ski turn or snowmobile cut could get a large, gouging wet loose avalanche going. In other locations, there were a few stronger ice lenses near the surface that were still unsupportive to boot pen, but added enough strength to the upper snowpack to prevent gouging. Variability seemed to come from aspect (better refreeze on more easterly slopes that went into the shade yesterday afternoon) or maybe elevation.
Date of Observation: 03/27/2022
Name: Dominic Gawel
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Skin out from gothic.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Loose wet on lookers left, wet slab on lookers right around the crackin’s arm.
Date of Observation: 03/27/2022
Name: daniel kreykes
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Bowl/gully above first Cement dispersed sites
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Largish loose wet slide off E aspect cliffs that ran 3/26. Entrained enough snow to deposit snow up to 7′ deep and 90′ wide in the gully bottom.
Weather: Hot. E/SE was sketchy and trapdoor by 10am. S by 1045am
