Date of Observation: 01/25/2023
Name: Irwin Guides

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Upper Upper Westwall mitigation work.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Shallow wind slabs (4-6″ deep) ATL on W aspects specific to terrain features. Large HE tests in the New World produced cracking to the ground in loaded pockets in the Thimble. In Thread/ Needle the AB only released surface snow which picked up enough speed to almost run full track. 1 large collapse with 3# covershot in the entrance to Thread.

Date of Observation: 01/25/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: The southern side of Ruby Peak to 12,000′.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Intentionally triggered a fresh wind slab that was about a foot thick and 40′ wide, D1 in size, on a windloaded east aspect near treeline. Triggered several other minor pockets on small features.
Weather: Light snowfall, light to moderate winds with periods of blowing snow. Cold temps.
Snowpack: Sensitive fresh drifts ranged from 3″ to 12″ thick, with frequent localized cracking and occasional collapses and shooting cracks on drifted features. Some slabs were cracking on precip particles, some were on a layer of near-surface facets that formed during the recent dry weather.
A profile targeting a relatively shallow slope similar to the one that avalanched on Ruby a week ago produced unreactive test results. The slab was about 5 feet deep, up to pencil hard near its base, on 1F- rounding facets (1mm).

Date of Observation: 01/24/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Red Mountain below treeline

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Did not travel near avalanche terrain.
Snowpack: See attached pit from a below treeline, NE facing slope. Moderate sudden collapse, propagating results below a 4F slab on both the mid-December weak layer (1-1.5 rounding facets) and 11/28 layer (3-5 mm depth hoar), both fist hard. Total snow depth here is 95 cm.

Date of Observation: 01/22/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: West and East. 10,000ft to 11,800ft.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Small sluffs. Not enough to be problematic and more a sign of the good snow quality.

Weather: Clam wind. High thin clouds slowly built in, becoming partly cloudy around noon and overcast later in the afternoon.

Snowpack: Thank you Ullr, the snow is still really good in some places, after yesterday’s northerly winds. We didn’t travel into the high alpine where snow surfaces could have been more wind affected. On this tour, snow surfaces were delightfully soft.

We started and finished the day on an east aspect between Ruby and the Dyke. The total snowpack depth was deep. The only potential concern was lingering wind slabs near ridgeline. We didn’t end up encountering a wind slab problem where we gained the ridge.

Off the west side, the snow surface in the first hundred feet was a little wind pressed, then it became soft and well-preserved powder from the last cycle. Those precipitation particles near the snow surface were still fairly large and had not decomposed much. At 10,000ft on the west side of the Dyke, the total HS was 170cm on a 10 degree west facing slope. Between 10,000ft and 11,800ft the HS varied dramatically in this location. Both due to past wind events and perhaps old avalanche activity that is no longer visible. Either way, we encountered no signs of instability while skiing and climbing steep slopes.

Date of Observation: 01/19/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Avalanches viewed from Reno Ridge in the Ruby Mountains. Views from a long way off.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A natural slab on Owen, east aspect, and another near Bichmond (along spine of Ruby Range by Cascade), southeast aspect. Both look to be small D2 avalanches in the recent storm snow. Probably big enough to bury a person, but viewed from 20 miles away.
Weather:
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 01/19/2023
Name: Jack Caprio

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Ruby Range

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Recent Avalanche on the south side of Ruby Peak. Large in size. Best guess is that it failed in the recent 40+ inches of storm snow, 2 to 3 feet deep.

Date of Observation: 01/19/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Cement Creek Road up Grassy Hill up Radio Tower Hill on snowmobile. Ski tour on eastern side of Radio Tower Hill.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Views into Southeast Mountains revealed just a few small Wind Slabs in alpine terrain. All appeared to be D1 in size, well short of D2;
Weather: Mostly clear skies with thin, high clouds sliding in around midday. Light winds before noon that went breathless at 12,000 feet in the afternoon. The recent storm cycle had a settle height of roughly 12″ at treeline.
Snowpack: I toured along a north-to-south ridgeline around 12,000 feet. No signs of instability underfoot while stomping along the thin edge of slabs on westerly start zones or drifted east through south terrain features. Weak layers are still obvious beneath slabs while probing on most aspects in this area but I was unable to produce any collapses. Snow profile on an alpine south slope showed several facet/crust layers with slabs stacked between but no propagating results (see photo). A northeast slope with a depth of 170cm near the treeline produced ECTX and PST END 65/120. I tried to find signs of instability and couldn’t; even without signs of instability or concerning test results, I would be hesitant to step into consequential terrain in this area for fear of finding a trigger point.

Snow depths near Reno Divide (11,300 feet) were 160cm, near Deadman’s TH (9,700 feet) in the middle portion of Cement Creek were 115cm.

Date of Observation: 01/19/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate River Ruby Range area. Various aspects, NE-E,SE-S-W. 9,300-11,500ft

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few wind slabs, storm slabs, sluffs, and cornice breaks, but nothing real big or notable. Nothing looked like it was running on a persistent weak layer. Will attach the best highlights in pictures.

Weather: Headed out around 11am. Cloud cover had increased by that time with incoming high thin clouds. Somewhere in the partly cloudy to mostly cloudy range through the early afternoon. Calm wind. Beautiful day.

Snowpack: In general, a lot of things look deep and caked in snow. I sure hope the wind stays away. Snow surfaces were impressively good, even in the alpine after yesterday’s increased winds. A little thicker than a few days ago, but still lovely. I pushed through several thick wind-loaded pillows on steep SE test slopes at around 10,700ft, and a couple of other locations. Couldn’t get anything to budge. Wind slabs felt stubborn.