Date of Observation: 02/07/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Daisy Pass to Hancock Peak to 12,400′, traveled mostly on NE and SW aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A handful of small loose avalanches ran on steep southwest aspects as the snow surface got moist, and we triggered some small sluffs as well. Spotted one natural soft slab (D1) that ran from a drifted near treeline slope during the recent storm.
Weather: Clear skies, calm winds.
Snowpack: Went hunting for feedback on the wind slab problem and couldn’t really find any, apart from minor cracking below an alpine ridge. Evidence of wind effect and previous wind transport in the recent snow was less than expected. The strong pre-storm southwest winds late on Sunday formed wind crusts and wind board across most terrain before the snow fell, which appears to have effectively destroyed the faceted storm interface. Ski cuts on suspect terrain were unproductive. There’s about 5″ to 8″ of soft, settled powder on northerly aspects available for transport if northerly winds increase tomorrow.

Date of Observation: 02/06/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Mount Emmons to 11,800′ on SE, E, and NE aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Unintentionally ski triggered a small wind slab, about 10″ thick. I was hunting for wind slabs below a leeward ridgeline with unproductive ski cuts, but further down the slope than expected, a small pocket popped while I was skiing.  Some folks at the trailhead reported triggering shallow soft slabs in Elk Creek area as well.
Weather: Cold, partly cloudy, a few brief flurries, and light to moderate northwest winds lightly drifting snow on ridgelines.
Snowpack: About 3″ to 4″ of new snow had been redistributed by southwest winds near and above treeline, with a bit of drifting shifting to northwest today. HS ranged from 180 to 210 cm near treeline where I probed. Also checked out a wind protected, northeast facing path that avalanched to near the ground in January. There, the snowpack was unusually shallow (HS 60 to 80cm in a few handpits), but the persistent slab structure appeared to be lacking the slab (snowfall after the avy has subsequently faceted), the original basal weak layer, or both. The most recent slab-forming event (late Jan) was unreactive in stability tests and while skiing steep terrain up to 40 degrees.

Date of Observation: 02/06/2023
Name: Billy Barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic townsite obs

Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Snow started near midnight and continued generally light until around 5 a.m. with 3½” new and water of 0.30″. Snowfall was moderate density but wind driven so the measured amount is dense. Currently cloudy, windy and mild with the low 15F after a high yesterday of 43F. billy

Date of Observation: 02/05/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate TH to Poverty Gulch on sled. Tour into upper Poverty Gulch between Augusta and Purple

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A couple of loose avalanches from steep sunny features from recent days, small size.
Weather: Thin, high cloud cover turned into partly cloudy skies as the cloud deck lowered. Obvious increase in wind speeds in the PM. Blowing snow was frequent at the highest elevations during the afternoon, but actual loading and thin slab formation looked pretty isolated.
Snowpack: Toured around easterly aspects from 9,800 to 12,200 feet. Snowpack test on drifted alpine slope produced no results. Surfaces near and above treeline remain dry on west through north through east aspects or in the warmest shoulder aspect locations… fragile, soft crusts. The south half of the compass developed crusts 2 – 3 cm thick on steep slopes. The exception to this was sunny terrain with dry fetches nearby…these start zones had two thinner melt/freeze crusts from warming and drifting over recent days (like the test profile in photos). Slope scale sunnies at all elevations no longer seem as concerning for avalanches to break at the old storm interface now that crusts will remain frozen and presumably buried by the incoming storm.
We observed numerous aggressive ski/snowboard lines on north through east through south slopes over the past few days in this area without incident.

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

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Toured on southerly and northerly aspects from Scarp Ridge to Schuylkill Ridge through Peeler and OBJ basins.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several small wet loose avalanches and a pair of soft slabs (~D1.5) on steep, sunbaked slopes that all appeared fresh in the past day or so, best guess is yesterday afternoon, based on the pattern of rollerballs associated with the slides. Also documented a handful of large slabs that ran during the last storm.
Weather: Strong inversion. Warm temps and strong sunshine on sunny slopes, just a few thin clouds. Calm winds.
Snowpack: Today’s goal was to cover ground and test a number of suspect slopes near and above treeline. Unfortunately, we are still getting consistent propagating results on the buried near surface facets and faceted crusts about two feet deep on all south and southeast slopes that we tested near treeline. These typically failed after additional loading steps (30 to 35 taps). I got non-propagating fractures on two pits on northerly aspects; one targeting a heavily drifted terrain feature above treeline adjacent to a large crown from the last storm (the slab was pencil hard). The other was a moderately drifted slope near treeline, 4F slab. I did not experience signs of instability underfoot except some rollerballs and pinwheels on sunny aspects.

Date of Observation: 02/02/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Snodgrass front side.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A suspected remotely triggered avalanche and an adjacent ‘other’ avalanche. Maybe sympathetic maybe natural??
Weather: Clear skies, mild temperatures, and light winds.
Snowpack: I went to investigate the snowpack structure in an avalanche observation submitted on the morning of 2/2 ( original observation – https://cbavalanchecenter.org/solo-snod-surprise/ ). While driving to the Snodgrass TH, I observed another avalanche adjacent to the one reported. My observation comes from the looker’s right avalanche, not the one with the track next to it. This avalanche failed on a facet/crust layer in the middle of the snowpack; the total depth was around 3 feet with a 16-inch deep crown. I am uncertain of the exact interface date, but it was certainly prior to 1/27 which is the date for the last storm interface. Test results in two nearby places produced ECTN moderate and unstable ECTP 9 results. I think part of the avalanche failed above the crust and part of it failed below the crust. The bed surface was hard to make sense of due to warm temperatures from yesterday and the wet surface snow in the bed surface while I was on site around 2pm on Thursday. While exiting the crown site, I collapsed a portion of the hangfire, but it did not avalanche…likely due to lower slope angles. Sunny slopes in this area were wet in the top 2 inches of snow with another inch of moist snow below that.

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

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Various aspects of Cement Creek, out to Tilton Pass to 12,000′

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Nothing today. A handful of D1 to D2 slab avalanches that likely ran during the most recent storm, all breaking in the upper snowpack and on near and above treeline slopes where there was wind drifting.
Weather: Beautiful day. Clear skies, light wind, inverted temps this morning.
Snowpack: Rode on more than a dozen small steep test slopes, mostly below treeline and a few drifted features near treeline without any signs of instability under the sled. Several stability tests suggest the most recent storm snow is unreactive in wind protected terrain. On a drifted south-facing slope, I got unstable results on a crust/facet layer about 45-50 cm deep under a 4F slab. One test in a shallow area (HS 85cm) produced a non-propagating failure on large-grained facets near the ground. Snow depths ranged from 80 cm at the trailhead to over 200 cm in the upper basin.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 02/02/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Poverty Gulch to sunny side of Cascade and lap through Camo Glades.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Observed a couple more natural avalanches from the last cycle on south and southeast slopes below treeline (a 1cm melt/freeze crust was present below the storm snow on a slope below the south-facing avalanche). A couple very small natural loose avalanches ran from steep rocky areas on south side of the compass.
Weather: Clear skies, cold temps at valley bottom but mild temps above the inversion zone. Light northwest winds with occasional gusting. I observed a small bit of drifting off the highest terrain.
Snowpack: Snow surfaces warmed and became moist in the top 1.5 inches. Shaded slopes below treeline held around a 20 of recent snow; the slab remains very soft outside of wind-affected areas and did not produce any cracking on a steep sheltered slope. On a drifted near treeline features, I was able to get a small hunk of snow to break at the storm interface after significant stomping. It felt like there could be some drifted features capable of producing a large slab avalanche and a lesser chance for much smaller slabs in sheltered areas.