Snowpack / Avalanche Obs: HS ranged from 50-120cms. Buried SH found roughly 20cms below surface and reactive to shovel tilt tests with moderate force and sudden planar fracture character. Not reactive in compression tests, as it would just become embedded in soft snow above upon compression force. Overall snowpack is mostly all facets F-4F hard. Moist and wet snow surfaces on open Northerly slopes. Dry snow holding on in dark timber on Northerlies

WEATHER: Clear, calm and warm – 35ºF @ 1000 and 47ºF @ 1500

SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS: Traveled in meadow and lower slopes.  Three big whumpfs in meadows.  We could feel the drop and the crack was visible nearly all the way around us.  Ski pen would go from 5-10cm to bottomless trap door conditions.

WEATHER: Clear, Cool in am. Warm in pm. Overall mostly light to moderate winds from NE

AVALANCHE / SNOWPACK OBS: A recent Wet loose from the ridgeline (probably Tue 10th) on SE @ 12,100 ~40* 2 small collapses along ridgeline (SE & SW @~10*) on thin faceted snow pack covered by wind hardened snow. Skied up to 40* on SE-SW without incident. Below 10,850 on S-SW aspects ~15:00 snow was unsupportive wet facets/DH with ski pen ~20-30cm, boot pen 1/2 way to China. Flats & SE were more supportive

Weather: Partly cloudy sky in the Washington gulch area with plenty of sun and warm temps to soften snow on sunny slopes. Farther west cloud cover looked overcast. Light winds for the most part.

Snowpack: Wet, gloppy snow surface below 10,000ft on sunny slopes and even some shaded slopes. Higher up the snow surface was cooler and crusts from the last few days where noticeable on slopes that had a more eastern tilt to them. Found buried surface hoar down 40cm below a 1f slab in the starting zone of coneys. Found the SH mid way down the bowl too, about 30cm down. Skied the bowl with many other tracks and still no obvious sings to instability.

WEATHER: Mostly sunny skies, very warm temps, minimal wind. Did get a skiff of snow Saturday night. Crazy.

SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS (approach flotation issues): We dug at edge of rock glacier in WNW side of whiterock up copper creek. HS Ranged from 80-200cm with widespread surface hoar 10-15mm preserved 20-40cm deep under a 4F slab. Dec 13th slab was unreactive until an informal extended deep tap got full propagation after wailing on it several times. Several natural avalanches were observed off center of e. Face of gothic and ene face of baldy from weds/thurs storm/wind. Spookiest results were on snodgrass. Preserved SH 10mm, ECTP7, ECTP12… Both SP, on 26*, E-facing slope. Deferred to lowest angle terrain and skied 30* meadow directly below saddle. 6th skier got large collapse on descent, but no cracking observed. Adjacent to our descent, on Friday, 2 skiers looked to have remotely triggered a 100-150ft wide pocket, 12-18″ deep, that looked like a SH weak layer from a distance. Below treeline, slightly convex meadow.

WEATHER: Stayed cold under light to moderate breeze (Winds from North & West) & overcast sky.

SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS: No Avy’s seen 1 collapse @ 12K S facing slope ~20*

Open ridgelines wind blasted Dense shady tree aspects holiding ~10-15cm of good snow on supportive base
southerlies holding very good supportive crust with ~15cm of dense new snow that stayed dry.

Snowpack Summary, February 2015.   -ZG

WEATHER: Mostly clear with steady winds from the north/nw 20mph w gusts 30+

SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS: Toured up to the glades with level 1 Avy class. We had a supportive ice/sun crust with 6+cm of new snow which soften things up.  Snow was wind effected near tree line.   Our group observed a sluff avalanche and what looked to be a small crown avalanche on red lady.   There were 2 tracks to the skier right of these slides that were put in early morning prior to the slides.  Not sure if the slides were natural or skier triggered. Continues wind loading throughout the day from tree line up.  Did not see any signs of instability throughout our tour.  The wind layer was starting to slab up in certain areas on the ski down. Skiing was in variable conditions but still good, new snow freshened things up a little.