Date of Observation: 03/02/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Brush Creek. 9,000ft to 11,600ft. NE-E.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: The most recent-looking avalanche failed in the last couple of days. 11,800ft, NE slope, some cornice chunks popped a slab avalanche that become large in size. Best guess is that this slab broke within the recent storm snow around 30 to 45cm deep below a wind-loaded ridgeline.

A couple of other large avalanches failed on an East facing slope near the Union Chutes and the south face of Teo. These each had around 25 to 30cm of snow on the debris so I’d estimate they ran during the extreme wind event around 2/22.

Weather: The clear sky became partly cloudy in the afternoon. I saw a couple of snow plumes off the high peaks before mid-day, otherwise nothing notable and calm winds while I was out.

Snowpack: Targeted the late January to February portion of the snowpack. In some areas around 9,300ft, the interface that was buried in early February still consisted of well-developed near-surface facets. However, on an east-facing slope at 9,300ft, I only got ECTN results and no results on test slopes. HS in these areas was 140cm or less and the 20 to 30cm of snow on top of that interface was perhaps just not enough of a slab.

Further up Brush Creek at 10,300ft the HS had climbed to 185cm and the same interface was buried by about 50cm’s of snow. The interface was notably less weak and didn’t produce in ECT or CT tests.

I spend some time trying to find the goldilocks slope between those to data points that would produce an unstable result or show signs of instability but never found it. There were some other suspect areas that would have been nice to look at.

Great skiing on NE-facing slopes, while East-facing slopes were developing a new crust. Steep south-facing slopes ATL had a few roller balls and loose snow avalanches.

Date of Observation: 03/02/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: West Elk Air flight covering most of the forecast zone. This ob highlights activity in the Northwest Mountains.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: The Tuesday/Wednesday storm produced numerous wind slab avalanches, D1.5 to D2, see photos. Most of these appeared to run on Tuesday as well as a handful on Wednesday. The last pulse of the storm on Wednesday also produced many small loose avalanches and a handful of thin storm slabs involving just Wednesday’s storm snow. I spotted two fresh persistent slab avalanches that failed on old weak layers, one was a wind slab that stepped down a few feet on an east facing, windloaded ATL slope near Coffee Pot Pass, in the Southeast Mountains. The other was on a steep, shallow east facing slope near treeline on East Beckwith in the Northwest Mountains. That slope has slab avalanched at least twice this year, so it has an unusually shallow snowpack.
Weather: Clear, light winds.

Date of Observation: 03/01/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Southeast mountains, viewed from Highway 135 and Mt. CB

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A large avalanche on Whetstone Octogon was reportedly skier triggered on 3/1. The avalanche looks like it gouged to near the ground on a slope that is very shallow. Plus a few more naturals from the storm. See photos and details.

Date of Observation: 03/02/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: West Elk Air flight covering most of the forecast zone. This ob highlights activity in the Southeast Mountains.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: The Tuesday/Wednesday storm produced numerous wind slab avalanches, D1.5 to D2, see photos. Most of these appeared to run on Tuesday as well as a handful on Wednesday. The last pulse of the storm on Wednesday also produced many small loose avalanches and a handful of thin storm slabs involving just Wednesday’s storm snow. I spotted two fresh persistent slab avalanches that failed on old weak layers, one was a wind slab that stepped down a few feet on an east facing, windloaded ATL slope near Coffee Pot Pass, in the Southeast Mountains. The other was on a steep, shallow east facing slope near treeline on East Beckwith in the Northwest Mountains. That slope has slab avalanched at least twice this year, so it has an unusually shallow snowpack.
Weather: Clear skies, no wind drifting this morning except on White Rock Mtn.

Date of Observation: 03/02/2023
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic

Weather: Wednesday had an obscured cloud cover all day with very light but steady snow, then snow after dark before clearing after midnight and turning colder. New snow was 4″ with 0.30″ of water and the snowpack is at 69½”. The high temperature was 23F and it dropped to the current -8. The wind was thankfully light and currently it is calm. This is the first visibility in a while but i have not checked for slide activity yet.

Date of Observation: 03/01/2023

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Irwin Area

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: E aspects reactive to AE 4F+ slabs failing on a small grained FC layer from the 2/26
interface. Knocked out some of the hang fire from Pre E and jumped with all our might on the rest but only
got it to inch down but wouldn’t budge.
Premature Evacuation SS-AE-R1-D1.5-I FC (70cm x 23m x 54m)
NC Shooter SS-AE-R1-D1-I FC (40cm x 15m x 53m)
Hollywood & Vine SS-AB-R1-D1-I FC (30cm x 15m x 50m)s

Snowpack: W aspects BTL lacked any slab in the recent storm snow. The 2″ from last night was
reactive and picked up enough speed to run full track on terrain >37 deg. 30-70 cm thick cross loads on EBM .
Buried MFC on Sunny shoulder seem to be breaking down and getting weaker.

Date of Observation: 03/01/2023
Name: Zach Guy Evan Ross

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Mt Emmons. 9,000-11,400ft. NW-N-E

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Poor visibility, but nothing we could see.

Weather: Light snow with about 2″ of new by 2pm. Calm winds.

Snowpack: No avalanche problems were encountered while skiing steep slopes. Minimal sluffing in the low-density snow that was accumulating today. Wind loading patterns from yesterday were not recognizable with the more recent snow that has accumulated since the winds died off. This week’s total storm accumulations have settled to around 20 to 30cm.

We dug a test profile on a 34-degree, east-facing slope at 10,700ft. HS was around 265. ECTN within the storm snow. Modified deep tap ect produced N results on both the valentines and late January interfaces.

Date of Observation: 03/01/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Friends Hut update via InReach message.
Weather: HST 11″/.9″ , 14″/1.2″ since 2/26. Efficient winds A/NTL yesterday but quiet around hut last night. Light snowfall started early this AM

Date of Observation: 03/01/2023
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic townsite

Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Snow Tuesday ran until mid afternoon and then held off until after midnight with 24 hour total of 5″ new and water content 0.44″. Only light but dense snow in the past few hours. The wind stayed strong yesterday but has stopped and there was even a bit of clearing before midnight as the temperature dropped to -7F but with the clouds it is currently back up to 8. Currently obscured and calm with a few flakes of snow. Snowpack is at 66½”
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 02/28/2023
Name: Irwin Guides

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Irwin Tenure

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Low loading patterns on W aspects BTL Reactive 8-10″ wind slabs to AS specific to terrain fetches which then transitioned into storm slabs by the afternoon. S aspects BTL stubborn wind slabs cracking but not running.
Ray SS-ASc-D1-I 12-14″ X 50′ X 75′
Weather: Extreme winds early this morning with periods of intense precipitation.
Snowpack: Study plot showed 8″ this morning and another 10″ today with 1.6″ SWE. Not confident in the snow total because of our friendly winds today. Felt more like a foot storm total.