Date of Observation: 03/14/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Schuylkill Ridge and Purple Palace.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Documenting additional storm slab activity from the last cycle on the Slate, most of which ran 3/11.
Date of Observation: 03/14/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Took a lap on Schuylkill Ridge and Purple Palace, traveling mostly on east and northeast aspects N/BTL.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A handful of small wet loose and two small storm slabs that either ran today or yesterday during the warm sunny weather. The storm slabs were about a foot thick on Peeler Peek, on east and northeast aspects, triggered by sluffs.
Like elsewhere, the Slate saw a significant storm slab cycle during the last storm, with lots of evidence of moving snow, partially filled in crowns and debris. The most notable slides were two off of the Great Wide Open that reached valley floor, one off of the west side of Baldy that crossed the slate, and all of the W/SW gullies off of Gothic produced large slides.
Weather: Partly cloudy skies, mild temps, light winds.
Snowpack: No signs of instability underfoot apart from some minor rollerballs. Stability tests on E and NE aspects produced non-propagating results on the storm interface down about 60 cm. On a SE aspect near treeline, we got repeatable propagating results (ECTP19, ECTP21) on a faceted crust down 80 cm, which was the 2nd crust from the top of the snowpack.
Snow surfaces got wet on all but the northern quadrant. Surface crusts transition from very soft and thin on northeast, to much thicker due south. I found dry, recrystallized grains developing above the crust on NE, E, and SE aspects. These were cooked off on due south. On north aspects, the snow surface was a mix of decomposing/fragmented grains and graupel. There was some surface hoar growth below 10,000′ feet this morning, but that appeared to be cooked or evolving into the near-surface facets above the crust.
Date of Observation: 03/14/2023
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: I was in a group of 3 today and we skied the North Face of Blob in the Yule Creek drainage.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: We reached the summit of The Blob with no signs of instability. The first 2 skiers skied the line with no issues. I was the 3rd skier and skied skiers left of the first two tracks. The line has multiple rolls and the line I skied had a large roll in the middle of it. Once I made a few turns down that roll, the slope began to fracture around me. I tried to ski out of it on the right side but the debris took my skies out from under me. I was in the debris for roughly 100 to 300 feet but managed to stay on top the entire time. I eventually came to a stop about halfway down the bed surface and a few hundred feet above where the slide stopped. Both of my skis came out during the slide but I was able to locate both of them and ski back down to my partners who were out of the way of the slide. No injuries occurred and I was able to ski out to the car with all of my gear.
Date of Observation: 03/13/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Various locations as viewed from town and Brush Creek.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Documenting a few more storm slabs that likely ran early Saturday, and a small glide release that ran today.
Date of Observation: 03/13/2023
Name: Irwin Guides
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Irwin Tenure
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few point releases on Robinson E wall, and SW aspects in the New World. All below rock bands. The Southeast Face of Afley ran wall to wall during the storm.
Snowpack: No signs of instability today, yesterdays storm slabs have settled and become unreactive. Snow surfaces did get moist on all aspects and elevations in our tenure. Roller balls were starting on E-S aspects after 1230. No signs of instability after AE tests on S aspects or any other of our terrain traveled
Photos:
Date of Observation: 03/13/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: West Brush Creek. Traveled mostly on east and northeast aspects to 11,600′
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Observed a large storm slab (D2.5) run this afternoon off the south face of Teo. The slab initiated as a relatively small pocket on a southeast aspect and then triggered a much broader, thicker crown on a cross-loaded terrain feature facing south that subsequently ran to valley floor.
Several very small dry loose and wet loose avalanches ran throughout the day.
West Brush Creek drainage saw a fairly widespread storm slab cycle, D1-D2, likely Friday night-Saturday morning. Pics show the largest slides, though there were plenty more. In three of the S/SW gullies of Teo, storm slabs stepped down and triggered more destructive persistent slabs, D2.5-D3. The crowns were mostly filled in but I measured debris blocks as thick as 4 feet, pencil hard.
Weather: Few to scattered skies through mid-afternoon. Mild temps. Calm winds.
Snowpack: I didn’t measure storm snow totals, but they seemed on par with other areas, in the 2-foot range. Snow surfaces became moist to wet on everything without a northerly tilt, producing a few rollerballs and minor sluffs. We skied on several steep, shady slopes with no signs of instability. However, we did get a creek bed to calve off about 3-feet deep on a facet layer at valley bottom.
Date of Observation: 03/13/2023
Name: billy barr
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Townsite
Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Light snow Sunday, then a short wave after dark before scattered showers overnight with 6″ new and water a more reasonable 0.44″. Currently cloudy with a few small patches of what passes for blue (take what you can get) and calm (have to love that one). Current snowpack is winter deepest at 83½”
Snowpack:
Date of Observation: 03/12/2023
Name: Evan Ross
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Mt Emmons. 9,000 to 10,200. W-NE-E. BTL
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: 3 to 4 D2’s in the Climax Chutes and a few smaller avalanches. These all likely ran early Saturday morning. Couldn’t see any crowns in the start zones, so assuming they were storm slabs that entrained snow.
A couple of small point releases today on various aspects.
Weather: Mostly cloudy. Calm wind. Up to 2″ of new snow in the afternoon.
Snowpack: We didn’t find any signs of instability on this lower-elevation tour. Lots of settlement from yesterday, and yesterday’s crust that formed around most of the compass, appeared to have killed the storm slab problem in this location. A couple of small point-release avalanches that ran today in the climax chutes, and on a NE-facing slope at 10,400ft didn’t propagate in the storm snow. We did 1 ECT test at 9,600ft, NE aspect, 35-degree slope, and got ECTN results in the storm snow and at the old snow interface.
HST on yesterday’s crust was 4″ down low and 6″ at 10,200ft.
We ran into the Gunsight Moose on the descent. The Moose was hanging out on GB loop.
6098Date of Observation: 03/12/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Traveled on various aspects of Cement Creek and Reno Ridge to 11,200′, as far up valley as Block and Tackle Trail.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: The most notable avalanche in Cement Creek was the previously reported large slide that crossed the road between Warm Springs and Deadmans Saturday morning during the storm. This appeared to be a wind-drifted storm slab that entrained a large amount of snow (see photo); the main lobe of debris was about 10 feet deep and stopped just short of the road, with some debris washing across the road to the creek. I saw one other D1 storm slab below treeline and evidence of moving snow on steep roadcuts from the storm. Visibility of above treeline terrain was limited. No new avalanches today.
Weather: Mostly cloudy, with intermittent periods of moderate snowfall. About 3″ of new snow overnight and today. Light winds and no blowing snow.
Snowpack: No signs of instability while snowmobiling and skiing on numerous steep slopes. I was able to produce some localized cracking about a foot deep on a drifted slope after undercutting the feature first. Storm totals are 18″ to 24″ deep, fist to fist+ hard; stiffer and more upside-down on drifted features.
I was hunting for signs of persistent slab issues on shallower slopes and did not get any collapses or unstable results. On a WNW facing terrain feature, I found a structure that would be concerning with additional slab consolidation and snowfall: it was a 60 cm fist hard soft slab over 2mm, fist hard facets, ECTX results (slab crumbled).
Date of Observation: 03/11/2023
Name: Irwin Guides Cat-Ski
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Irwin Guides cat-ski tenure
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Avalanche observations: HST responsive to AE, unresponsive to AS
Long HS-AE-R1-D1.5-I DF (30cm x 10m x 135m)
Way Long HS-AE-R1-D2-I MF (30cm x 20m x 135m)
Thorton’s HS-AE-R1-D1.5-I MF (50cm x 20m x 115m)
Bender HS-AE-R1-D1.5-S DF (15cm x 10m x 125m)
Flaming Ferrari HS-AE-R1-D1-S DF (20cm x 5m x 50m)
Weather: “We are currently HST: 28/3.2″ with more snow in the forecast. We also cracked a 100″ base today, which is nice.
The latest round of precip came with an extreme SW wind event, which is less nice. Last night we registered 5 hours of wind gusts from 35-48 at our base area study plot at 10.4k.”
Snowpack: This wind event combined with a warming trend during the storm produced widespread hardness inversions that were responsive to AE, but not to AS. A most uninspiring structure.
