Zone: Northwest Mountains

Location: Mt. Owen

Date of Observation: 11/18/2020

Subject: Mooiiist snow

Aspect: North, North East, East, South East

Elevation: 10,500 – 12,800′

Avalanches:

No recent activity

Weather: Unusually warm temps. Strong SW winds but no snow transport. Scattered clouds.

Snowpack: We found good stability on various aspects. On the southern half of the compass, the snow surface was moist or wet from warm temps, often isothermal through the whole snowpack. Expect a crust of varying thickness going into the weekend. Northerly aspects hold dry snow, a mix of softer sastrugi and wind-packed rounds on the surface. No notable persistent weak layers on the surface at the moment thanks to abusive winds and sun, and a generally a homogenous 4-finger snowpack from surface to ground on all but due north aspects. On a NNE aspect, we found the 11/6 facet layer lurking below 70 cm of slab, but it was discontinuous due to talus on the ground. It did not produce concerning pit results or signs of instabilities. We skied steep terrain on both north and east aspects with no instabilities.

Photos:

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Kebler Pass to Anthracites ridgeline
Date of Observation: 11/14/2020
Name: Zack Kinler Eric Murrow

Subject: Kebler Pass afternoon obs

Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, West, North West

Elevation: 10,000 to 11,250

Weather: Decreasing cloud cover, no accumulating snowfall, and strong northwest winds afternoon. Air temps noticeably decreased throughout the tour. Blowing snow was common at all elevations; much of the transported snow near and above treeline was blasted into the atmosphere or loaded lower on slopes than usual.

Snowpack: It was difficult to find a good place to measure the new snow, but it was around 10 to 12 inches. Strong northwest winds pounded through much of the open terrain leaving soft, “breaker” wind board mixed in with some pockets of soft snow. Snow surfaces were disturbed by the wind on almost all slopes. Westerly and northwesterly alpine features were largely blown back to ground.

We traveled through BTL and NTL northerly slopes largely looking at the old snow from October. Snow depth was around 60 cm. In this area, NE and N facing slopes had developed a soft crust around an inch thick (~2cm) above the thin layer of weak snow at the ground. Tests did not produce propagating results. We did not experience any significant cracking or collapsing, but we did not travel through any features with significant previous drifting. The weak layer may have been a bit too thin to overcome ground roughness through much of the terrain we looked at.

Crossed a southeasterly slope at 11,200′ and found the new snow sitting on a soft crust around an inch thick.

Photos:

Zone: Northwest Mountains

Location: Ruby Range

Date of Observation: 11/11/2020

Subject: Small naturals

Aspect: East

Elevation: to 11,800′

Avalanches:

Good views of various aspects in the Ruby Range. Nothing significant of note, although winds had reworked the surfaces in the last couple of days. I noted one small debris pile below the south face of Mineral Point (see photo), and got a second-hand report of a small debris pile below the north face of Ruby.

Weather: Clear skies, light winds with occasional drifting snow. Strong diurnal temperature swing.

Snowpack: Traveled primarily on east aspects: no signs of instability, just recent snow on dirt. The snow surface is already starting to facet.

Photos:

Zone: Northwest Mountains

Location: Upper Slate

Date of Observation: 11/10/2020

Subject: Welcome back winter!

Aspect: North East, East, South East

Elevation: 9700-11,600′

Avalanches:

None observed. Limited visibility of alpine terrain.

Weather: Broken to overcast skies. Moderate northwest winds at ridgetop. Very light snowfall (S-1).

Snowpack: Simple snowpack with minimal signs of instability. 15″ to 18″ of right-side-up storm snow across previous bare ground. Previous drifting from the southwest had left drifts up to 3′. Shifting winds were lightly redistributing the snow off of northerly aspects this afternoon. In a few wind drifted features, we produced stubborn cracking up to 10″ deep and 8′ long. We went sniffing for a persistent slab problem on shady aspects here but couldn’t find direct feedback. On a northeast aspect at 11,000′, we found old faceted and crusty snow near the ground, but it wasn’t propagating in pits and didn’t produce any obvious signs of instability (see photo). The layer was only an inch thick on the ground and somewhat discontinuous here due to rocks and shrubs.

Photos:

Zone: Northwest Mountains

Location: Elk Mtns and Ruby Range

Date of Observation: 10/29/2020

Subject: October flyover

Snowpack: See photos from October 29, 2020 flight.
CBAC note: The additional week of dry, warm weather following this flight and prior to the November 6th storm further melted snow coverage back, especially on E, S, and W aspects.

Photos:

Zone: Northwest Mountains

Location: Slate River to Paradise Divide to Schofield Pass

Date of Observation: 11/06/2020

Subject: Early season snow coverage

Weather: Mild temps, mostly cloudy skies, light winds.

Snowpack: Shallow coverage (a few inches or less) of late October snow remains on northerly aspects (NE, N, NW) near and above treeline. Snow coverage is mostly melted off on E – S – W aspects. On high, shady aspects, the thin snowpack is weak: 2mm, fist hard facets.  On warmer slopes, the snow is capped by a melt-freeze crust of varying thickness. Because of the thin snow coverage, the weak layer is discontinuous on a majority of northerly terrain, interrupted by clumps of grass, talus, etc. However, some of the smoother alpine bowls or heavily shaded pockets near treeline have relatively continuous coverage. Start zones such as Redwell Basin on Emmons, Halloween Bowl and Emerald Bowl on Baldy, and the slopes above Purple Bench are examples of the latter. See photos for various examples through the terrain.

Photos: