Date of Observation: 12/04/2022
Name: billy barr
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic
Weather: A bit more of a ‘normal’ snow Saturday with 2″ new and a more what was once standard water content of 0.12″ of water. Snowpack reached 19½” deep and now at 19″, just slightly under average for this date. It was blissfully calm. Some clearing overnight and warm with the low 16F so far, after a high of 25F. Currently partly cloudy and calm. –Snow was still collapsing on level ground.
Date of Observation: 12/03/2022
Name: Zach Kinler
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Snodgrass Trailhead toward Gothic townsite
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Visibility was fading but there was evidence of a large slide in Coon Basin. E-NE aspect.
I remote-triggered a small avalanche from the flats just off the road on an East aspect.
Weather: Increasing clouds and moderate snow mid morning.
Snowpack: Reactive. Every small test slope with older snow collapsed and cracked with little effort. Found one that finally ran after the collapse on a steeper slope that had been previously wind loaded.
Date of Observation: 12/03/2022
Name: billy barr
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic
Weather: Wind Friday started moderate with strong gusting but by the afternoon was a steady blizzard with gusts around 40-50 mph- worst since last spring and the reason why people move to milder climates in winter. The snow was dense and wind driven so for the day there was 3″ new with water of 0.44″. Wind let up in the evening and it cleared and cooled with clouds returning around 3-4 a.m. The temperature rose from the low of 3F to the current 11 after a daytime high yesterday of 27. Currently cloudy and calm with 18″ on the ground, down from the hgh of 19″
Date of Observation: 12/02/2022
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Driving into town.,
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: natural avalanche off Gibson Ridge immediately above the defensive berms. Did not look big enough to bury a person but probably take you for a ride.
Weather:
Snowpack:
Our first snowpack summary of the year is here. A dryspell in late November caused the snowpack to become very weak, setting us up for dangerous conditions once the storm track returned.
Date of Observation: 12/02/2022
Name: Evan Ross
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Kebler Area Tour. Northerly, 10,000ft to 11,500ft
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered a couple of small slides. The first was while descending small, but steep terrain. The 2nd was while bouncing for a collapse, resulting in a remotely triggered avalanche from about 25 feet away.
Weather: Strong winds and blowing snow most of the day. Hard to gauge how much it was snowing vs blowing.
Snowpack: HST was about 20cm by 1 pm at 10,500ft. A distinct layer of graupel near the base of the storm and plenty of graupel mixed in with other perception particles within the storm now. Thick and supportive new snow. Made the low angles ski really well. Total HS in the area is around 100 to 120cm.
Lots of collapses and shooting cracks in the snowpack, as has been normal lately. Each time I looked, those cracks were extending down to the weak sandbox near the base of the snowpack.
Photos:
Date of Observation: 12/02/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Mt. Crested Butte, gladed low angle skiing on northerly aspects.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Ski triggered a couple of 12″ soft slabs breaking on our weak facet layer on small rollovers in the trees. Saw results from mitigation teams on Horseshoe that failed on the storm interface and old facet layers, D1 in size.
Weather: Moderate snowfall rates and strong winds with periods of intense wind transport.
Date of Observation: 12/02/2022
Name: Zach Kinler
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: East ditch trail above 4th and Red Lady
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: Cloudy with nnow squalls. Moderate West wind in open areas.
Snowpack: On an afternoon dog walk, I was able to collapse just about every small slope I stepped on producing shooting cracks. These features were not big enough to run but larger ones certainly would have. Westerly winds were moving snow in open areas below treeline. 6-7″ of new snow from this storm, which was fairly dense.
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[/accordion_item] [/gravityforms] [/accordion]] 5665Date of Observation: 12/02/2022
Name: Billy Barr
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Townsite
Weather: Cloudy overnight with snow starting before 3 a.m. light to moderate but very dense with 3″ new and water 0.31″ with the snowpack at 16″. Gusting wind at times. Currently obscured with light snow. High temperatures the past 24 hours was 36F, low 24 and the current 25. A wet, heavy snow to start out.
Date of Observation: 12/01/2022
Name: Billy Barr
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: viewed from Gothic townsite
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: two small avalanches on northeast slopes of snodgrass than ran late Wednesday or overnight.
Weather:
Snowpack:
