Date of Observation: 01/04/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: The southwest side of Gothic Mountain had a couple of fresh avalanches that likely ran last night or early this morning. Could only see 1 well, it was a cross-loaded SW terrain feature, above treeline, D2.5. Another one of the bowls also looked to have some debris at the bottom but I never got a good view of it.

ZG had previously documented several avalanches off of Anthracite Mesa on January 2nd, and there had been one more D2 avalanche on an ESE slope near treeline since his observation. It didn’t necessarily look fresh, but otherwise ran in the last couple of days.

Weather: Mostly cloudy through the first 3/4th of the day. A few flakes fell throughout the day but no notable accumulation. Moderate winds near ridgeline during the AM.

Date of Observation: 01/04/2023
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic townsite

Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Cloudy, windy and mild overnight with the 24 hour snow totals just 1½” and water of 0.14″ with snowpack settling to 46″. Some drifting snow yesterday afternoon and overnight. High temp 20F low 10, current 11. Snowpack starting to settle and set up better. Currently cloudy and windy but not snowing, though blowing snow.

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

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Cement Creek TH along roadway to mid-Cement area toured near ‘Grassy Hill’ and Hunter Creek on westerly aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: I observed a few recent small avalanches in lower Cement Creek near the Summer Home group parking area on north and east slopes. While snowmobiling up Reno Road, we came across a natural avalanche that piled debris on the Road from a west-facing slope. We remotely triggered a pair of avalanches open west-facing terrain that broke in very weak snow near the ground (this terrain likely sat very shallow from west winds earlier this winter). Sometimes we needed to hop or stab a ski through the slab to get a collapse…certainly not hard, but not effortless. We may have remotely triggered a small slope while snowmobiling at valley bottom on our way in and noticed it on the way out.
Weather: Overcast skis with mostly light snow with a few periods of moderate intensity around midday. Winds remained light, with a few exposed areas showing signs of recent wind effect.
Snowpack: We mainly traveled on westerly aspects below treeline with depths ranging from 90 to 120cm depending on wind erosion earlier this winter. We experienced two large booming collapses and several moderate-sized collapses. I suspect many of the meadows we crossed previously collapsed during high-intensity snowfall on Sunday. The south half of the compass below treeline in this area has developed enough slab over the past week to overload weak facets and crust/facet combinations at the bottom of the snowpack. Collapsing, snowpack tests (see below), and remotely triggered avalanches all point to easy human triggering of avalanches below treeline.

Date of Observation: 01/03/2023

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: South side of Mt. Crested Butte

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Buckhorn couloir. Looked like it originated in the trees and came down. Hard to say if p slab or storm snow.

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

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Widespread slide activity in this area though except for very steep areas on Gothic most slides were from the new snow and did not carry far, and all small except one moderate one off Gothic. This new snow overnight should not affect much as it is light and not all that much of it.
Weather: Only very light scattered snow Monday until after dark, then it picked up towards sunrise with 4½” new and water a light 0.26″ with little wind and even a bit of clearing Monday afternoon. Currently 48″ on the ground- winters deepest with light to moderate snow and no wind and no visibility.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 01/02/2023
Name: Zach Kinler

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Dog walk through town.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A good number of large natural avalanches on South and West aspects from the recent cycle. Hard to tell exactly where in the snowpack they broke but several were widely propagating with crowns several feet deep suggesting they broke on weak layers within the snowpack. Some crowns looked quite fresh likely breaking within the last 24 hours while others likely broke earlier in the cycle.
Weather: Partly cloudy skies, light westerly winds, cool temps.
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 01/02/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Washington Gulch road

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few more persistent slabs that ran over the weekend, up to D2.5. See photos and details below.

Date of Observation: 01/02/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Traveled on various aspects off of Elkton Knob, most commonly on west and southwest below treeline.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: The Elkton area saw a decent D2 cycle over the weekend on many steep slopes, various aspects. Soft slabs were generally 2 to 3 feet thick, failing on mid-December facets. In contrast, the Purple Palace area appeared to be relatively quiet during the cycle, perhaps because of Arctic Blast wind effects on the weak layer there. I stomped around on top of a couple of small, steep slopes and triggered one persistent slab that was 3 feet thick (4F) over fist hard 1mm facets on a west facing slope. There was also evidence of avalanche activity earlier in the storm on Baldy, Purple Ridge, and Schuylkill Ridge. Light was too flat to see much else.
Weather: Light snow showers on and off through the day, with bouts of sunshine too. Light to moderate ridgetop winds with blowing snow off of Mt. Baldy.
Snowpack: Fairly quiet while breaking trail and skinning. We got one collapse and chatted with another group in the same area that got several large collapses and shooting cracks. Slabs are consolidating and ski pen is now ankle deep, making for good turns on the low angle.

Date of Observation: 01/02/2023
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Townsite

Weather: Cloudy with light snow much of Sunday but very dense, then light snow into the night with wind at times and some snow movement. The 24 hour snow total was just 4″ with again a very dense water content of 0.45″. The snowpack is at winters deepest of 47″. Currently a little bit of clearing with a light SW wind with the temperature at the 24 hour low of 21F after a high of 29F. December was 2% above average in snowfall and 33% above in water from snow. billy

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

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Irwin Tenure

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Widespread Touchy Storm Slabs yesterday 12/31. There was a notable natural avalanche cycle on the Upper Upper West Wall that produced 3-5 large avalanches. This terrain has not been mitigated or skied this season and was predominantly scoured down to rock prior to 12/28. Lingering Storm Slabs were more resistant to explosive and skier testing in our core westerly terrain today. However, easterly start zones that were previously Unreactive reached a tipping point: a single hand charge cleared out almost all of Candies and Sonic to the ground (SS-AE-R2-D2-G FC (100cm x 75m x 150m)). This is southeasterly terrain from about 12k. We also had a small but impressive natural event today on The Crotch apron in a recently wind loaded pocket (HS-N-R2/D1.5-O/G 50-100 cm x 10m x 40m). This is SSW terrain at 11.8k and ran O/G with a crown of 1m at its apex.
Snowpack: We received 45″ of snow with 3.5 inches of water over two storm cycles since 12/28. The second cycle was notable for very warm temps, multiple riming events that laid down thin friable crusts at lower elevations, and several hardness inversions in the new snow.