Date of Observation: 03/08/2022
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: NW aspect, 10900 ft.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Slab avalanche broke 3 feet above skier, and carried him briefly for 3 or 4 feet before he self arrested. D1 in size.
Photos:
Date of Observation: 03/08/2022
Name: Josh Jones
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Mountain W-SE 9500-12200
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A D1 windslab(?) observed lookers left of the Spoon SE aspect 10700~.
2 wind slabs observed on Baldy. SE aspect near the ridge. One released during our ski in between 11 and 5 PM.
Weather: 13 Degrees
Light NW wind
4/8 Skycover
Snowpack: SW aspects had 4-8″ of low density snow on top of a solid meltfreeze layer.
SE aspects were similar until we hit NTL and ATL elevations. Obvious deeper drifts below ridgeline. No signs of cracking or or signs of instability but noticed the windslab was present. 2-4″ thick.
Below 10500′ on sun exposed aspects SE-SW, observed already crusted up snow with crusts ~1-3″ thick
Date of Observation: 03/08/2022
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Red Lady skintrack with 2 laps in the bowl.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A couple of very small windslabs just off the ridge around Gunsight Pass along with a little fresh (soft) debris in the bowl on S & SE aspects.
Weather: Bluebird & cold with a light wind shifting from NW to SW to W.
Snowpack: The new snow has consolidated a bit since Sunday but didn’t feel particularly slabby. No obvious signs of instability, even while breaking a new trail along the upper ridge below the summit.
Date of Observation: 03/07/2022
Name: Than Acuff
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: BTL NE
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Just some minimal sluffing up high on steep NE slopes
Weather: partly cloudy with periods of snow and some winds
Snowpack: 4-5″ new from day before. Snow getting stiffer, feeling a little shlabby out in open from the winds but still getting it in the face. Some shattering in surface of snow at top of rolls out in the open where the wind got to it
Date of Observation: 03/05/2022
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Hiking up NE slope between Meridian Lake and Washington Gulch Rd.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Friend triggered avalanche from below while hiking up the slope and was caught, getting partially buried.
Weather:
Snowpack:
Date of Observation: 03/06/2022
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: 9,200-12,300 feet, SE aspect; standard route.
Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Calm wind, mid to upper teens and overcast in the morning. By the afternoon, intermittant light snow and moderate SW wind.
Snowpack: A foot or so of super low density snow on a firm crust. No signs of instability, not even a little sluffing at the top. Occasionally, an edge would bump the underlying crust. Even with flat light, and at times low visibility, we spent the better part of the day lapping the bowl; floating on clouds of snow! A concern would be for the increasing winds to form fresh windslabs overnight.
Date of Observation: 03/06/2022
Name: Ben Ammon
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Snodgrass
Observed avalanche activity: No
Snowpack: Multiple small collapses above 10,600′ on NE and SW terrain. All in sheltered terrain, fairly thick trees which likely helped protect from the sun in the SW terrain. Also got one small slope to collapse on a SW slope around 10,000′. Traveled a lot of terrain between 10 and 11k’ on S and SW around 35 degrees and noted no other signs of instability. No slab forming in the storm snow. Face shots likely.
Date of Observation: 03/06/2022
Name: Andrew Breibart Jonathan Cuppett
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch TH to Coneys
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: We observed one avalanche below the ridge line near the high point of the mesa. Appears to be SS-N-R1-D1-o. Failure occurred on convexity in a wind loaded area below the ridge line. The fetch near the ridge has no vegetation. Slope angle of the crown appears to be between 30-35 degrees. We think the failure occurred on melt freeze crust.
Weather: obstructed skies and light winds.
Snowpack: Up to 16 inches of new snow in the past 48 hours. Standing about 15 feet apart on the ridge above the avalanche in this observation, we both each felt a localized collapse.
Date of Observation: 03/05/2022
Name: Cosmo Langsfeld
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Cement Creek Ranch
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: ~2.5” since beginning of storm.
Snowpack:
Date of Observation: 03/03/2022
Name: Mark Robbins
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Anthracites/playground
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Maybe previously reported? On playground up track, assuming it ran during the last avalanche cycle. Didn’t closely inspect but looked like the full pre-presidents day storm slab running on the dry-spell surface. See photos.
Snowpack: Got two small but somewhat puckering collapses breaking the up track in the playground. At 11,200-11,300 due north. Touring back up the south side just after noon, surface was wet but still supportive. Noted a few deep widely propogating cracks, see photo.
Photos:
