Date of Observation: 12/08/2022
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Southeast slope of Schuylkill Ridge
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: From the text message – “Popped a shallow storm slab first pitch then great pow!”.
Weather:
Snowpack:
Date of Observation: 12/08/2022
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Pavement obs from the road.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few more avalanches from Whetstone and one deep avalanche from Treasury. Hard to time avalanche release but a few crowns looked sharp while others were likely from around Tuesday 12/6. The crown on Treasure looks very deep and the view was poor so I did not code it until a better image comes around.
Weather:
Snowpack:
Date of Observation: 12/08/2022
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Snowmobiled Kebler Pass to West Beckwith.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Lots of large natural avalanches were observed near/above treeline on the north half of the compass in the Anthracite Range, East Beckwith, and West Beckwith. Some avalanches appeared very fresh, within the past 24 hours, while others appeared to be closer to 48 hours from the tail end of Tuesday’s storm. Visibility was marginal; I observed many debris piles with obscured start zones, or binoculared a crown but was unable to photograph before losing visibility. I coded avalanches in the attached photos.
Did not observe any avalanches below treeline.
I got a few glimpses into southerly terrain north of Dark Canyon, and southeasterly terrain on Marcellina and did not observe any obvious large avalanches.
Weather: Snowfall tapering off by 10 am. Partly to mostly cloudy skies. Westerly winds were transporting moderate amounts of snow at upper elevations. 24-hour snowfall totals ranged from 2 to 5 inches along the Kebler Pass roadway.
Snowpack: I took a moment to dig a profile on a northerly slope at 9,000 feet near Horse Ranch Park. Snow depth was 80cm. The bottom 15cm was 2-3mm depth hoar, with around 30cm of 1-finger and 4-finger hardness slab above, and about 35cm of lower-density recent snow at the surface. I was able to walk around in boots and not punch through the slab. I believe I collapsed the site as I approached on my snowmobile. The snowpack in the western parts (west of Kebler Pass) of the Northwest Mountains seems to match well with the rest of the zone in the Ruby Range based on the profile and snow coverage in alpine terrain.
Date of Observation: 12/08/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Flat light views of Mt. Axtell at sunset.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Fresh slab avalanche to the ground in 6th Bowl (NE to maybe E facing). Two brown stains on 5th bowl and Wang Chung face that I didn’t see yesterday, but I couldn’t confirm crowns or debris in the flat light, so I’ll code later if we get a better look.
Date of Observation: 12/08/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Morning rec tour in Kebler Pass corridor, traveled on south, southwest, and northeast aspects below treeline, up to 10,400′
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Poor visibility of suspect terrain.
Weather: Steady west wind, generally moderate speeds on exposed ridgelines with light to moderate blowing snow. Light snowfall, with about 4″ of new overnight.
Snowpack: Traveled primarily on slopes that were bare during our November dryspell for a low-stress day. Winds were forming fresh drifts up to 18″ thick on cross drifted features that were easy to recognize and avoid. Yesterday’s sunshine formed a soft crust under last night’s new snow, but the riding quality was still fun. As soon as we wandered into the land of the forbidden fruit (NE aspect), we got frequent rumbling collapses, sometimes multiple collapses on the same slope. Test pits produced easy propagating results on the 11/28 facet layer (F, 2-3mm) under a 70 cm slab (F down to 1F). The slope collapsed both before digging the pit, and again after we were leaving.
Date of Observation: 12/08/2022
Name: Billy Barr
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic townsite
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: Light snow Thursday morning and then stopping midday until around midnight with light snow until around 4 a.m., then becoming heavier for 2 hours. That stopped around 6 as the wind became nasty. There was a brief period of a bit of sun yesterday but cloudy overwise as it still is now with moderately strong wind moving snow. There was 5″ new with water 0.30″ and now 30½” of snow on the ground. It reached 35F with today’s low 15 and current 16. Snow seems to have started up again but with the wind it is hard to tell but if so, very light (the snow, not the wind). billy
Date of Observation: 12/07/2022
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Avi ob from Irwin area.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Natural avalanche on Mount Owen. East to southeast aspect above the treeline.
Weather:
Snowpack:
Date of Observation: 12/07/2022
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Snodgrass skin track to the summit, a brief look at northside, and tour around northwest and southwest start zones.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: I observed a natural avalanche in California Bowl with debris visible from the parking lot, and a few other naturals on the north side and remotely triggered an ENE slope from a few hundred feet away. Several naturals ran yesterday (a few inches of refilled snow) and another ran recently without snow on the bed surface. I expected to find more natural avalanches…this leaves many suspect slopes on the north side of Snodgrass just waiting to be triggered by a person.
Weather: Mostly cloudy skies, light winds, and light snowfall starting just after 2pm.
Snowpack: Snowpack is around 85cm (just shy of three feet) on the north half of the compass. Anytime I left the skin track I easily produced loud collapses; like relentlessly for several hours as I moved through untraveled terrain. The recent snowfall and mild temperatures have allowed the slab to gain strength, but NOT the weak layer. The 1-finger hardness in the slab is producing long-running collapses and remotely triggered avalanches. As I contoured around Snodgrass to the northwest signs of instability and long-running collapses continued. Southwesterly start zones did not produce any signs of instability and appeared to have a “right side up” snowpack with a graupel layer in the middle. Low elevations southeast, south, and southwest slopes developed a soft crust today from mild temps and periods of sun.
Low-angled terrain is skiing awesome right now…supportive and fast turns!
Photos:
Date of Observation: 12/07/2022
Name: Zach Guy Evan Ross
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Lower Washington Gulch: A few small natural persistent slabs that likely ran last night on the small, steep slopes near Meridian Lake.
Gothic Mountain W-NW: This area has seen a few avalanches recently. A couple of D2 on NW and a couple of D1’s on W. Probably ran last night or yesterday during a loading event. Not really any snow or wind today so I wouldn’t expect they ran this morning.
Elkton Knob W-NW: Several small to large slabs that ran on NW to W aspects. They all had snow on the bed surfaces and likely ran last night or yesterday.
Mt Emmons: NW aspect in Wolverine Basin. Couldn’t see debris or accurately judge size from such a distance. At least large in size.
Mt Baldy South Bowl: Looker left side of the south bowl had a large avalanche. SE aspect. The avalanche debris looked soft with fresh snow on them. D2.5
Mt Baldy South Bowl. SW aspect with a notable crown but the avalanche was small in size. D1.5
Photos:
Date of Observation: 12/07/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Rec skiing some small hills near Snodgrass, easterly facing terrain, with decent views of Gothic, Copper Creek, Emmons, and Axtell.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several recent avalanches, most likely ran during the storm yesterday or last night: A couple large to very large avalanches off of Axtell and Gothic, ~D2.5 best guess. Several D2s off of Climax Chutes. A number of shallow storm instabilities on Gothic, both slabs and loose dry, up to D1.5.
We remotely triggered a small persistent slab avalanche from a couple hundred feet away on a small slope below treeline.
Weather: Felt like spring temps. Some sun coming through broken skies. Calm winds, no snow.
Snowpack: More of the same, shooting cracks and collapses on anything with old snow; slabs here were ~18″ thick over large grained facets. A couple collapses required stomping. Tried to get one frequent flier to release with some stomping from nearby, but it just shattered and stayed put after the collapse.
