Date of Observation: 12/01/2022
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: small hills near Snodgrass trailhead
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: some real small avalanches from the storm
Weather: sunny skies, snow blowing off summits
Snowpack: snow depth about 2 feet on shaded terrain. sporadic surface hoar moderate size. a few small collapses. many slopes were covered in cracks but didn’t avalanche.
Date of Observation: 12/01/2022
Name: Zach Kinler
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate River TH to bottom of Purple Palace
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Continued documentation of the widespread avalanche cycle on East through North aspects.
Weather:
Snowpack:
Date of Observation: 11/30/2022
Name: Zach Kinler
Zone: Southeast Mountains/ Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate River TH to the bottom of Purple Palace
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Documented a widespread cycle of avalanches from the recent storm on East through North aspects at all elevations. There were many small avalanches below treeline and numerous large D2-2.5 avalanches near and above treeline. The majority of these slides appear to have failed on 11/29 with the earlier ones filling back in a bit making them harder to identify.
Weather: Cold, had the handlebar warmers on high.
Snowpack:
Date of Observation: 11/30/2022
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate River corridor to Purple Ridge skin track.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Widespread natural avalanche cycle. Below treeline northerlies (weakest snowpack) ran during the storm with many small naturals. Near and above treeline slopes held out longer and produced large, dangerous avalanches. See photos. We remotely triggered one avalanche from 250 feet away that wrapped around some small terrain features producing a large (D2) avalanche on a NE slope.
Weather: Clear skies, cool temperatures, and light winds.
Snowpack: We traveled on mostly easterly aspects (NE-E-SE) slopes. Collapsing was rampant on north and east aspects. Some collapses ran a few hundred feet breaking in well-developed facets. The slab ranged from 10 to 15 inches thick in sheltered terrain. The depth, here in the snowbelt Northwest Mountains forecast area, was up to 90cm (3 feet) in sheltered areas. Signs of instability were obvious and the conditions behaved like a Persistent Slab problem with remote triggering a real concern.
Date of Observation: 11/30/2022
Name: Ben Pritchett
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Photos taken from near CB.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: See photos and details of natural activity from yesterday
Date of Observation: 11/30/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Mt. CB
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A handful of D1 to D2 avalanches on north and east aspects on Whetstone, Emmons, Gothic that ran yesterday. Had good views of S/SW facing terrain out by Copper Creek and Red Ridge with no obvious activity.
Date of Observation: 11/30/2022
Name: bill barr
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic
Weather: Light off and on snow Tuesday- a very dense, small crystal, cold weather snow but only 1″ new and 0.11″ of water. Wind was steady about 8-15 mph from the west. Clearing overnight and cold with the low -10ºF. Currently clear and -8 and wind is calm. Snowpack sits at 16″.
Date of Observation: 11/29/2022
Name: Evan Ross, Zach Kinler
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch, Anthracite Mesa. NE to SE. 9,800ft to 10,800ft.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: We saw a good number of small natural avalanches. D1’s on the aspects we traveled and at the below treeline elevation. Often easy to miss in both size and the poor light, and then ooo hey neighbor… Otherwise, the only other notable avalanches observed were a D1.5 and a D2 next to each other in Coney’s Bowl. They both had notable crowns in the 2ft range, but each ran out of accumulating mass and slope angle.
Weather: Accumulating snowfall and winds continued into the afternoon. The snowfall started to taper off in the early afternoon, while moderate winds remained. The obscured sky just started to break up towards the end of the day.
Snowpack: The subject line sums it up in a simple and frank way. On the NE to SE aspects we traveled the avalanche problem was reactive. We observed continued shooting crack throughout the tour. But those cracks most often wouldn’t propagate very far. The weak layer in this area was just too rough and interrupted by things like bushes and other ground clutter. We primarily traveled in an area with slope angles in the 35-degree or less range, had we been on steeper slopes we may have seen more movement as slabs may have overcome all the friction.
The weak layer is fairly simple. Large grained facets on the top of thick crusts on the SE end, to facets on thin crests around east, to just large and very weak facets on NE. We could dive in deeper but this is a quick summary. This particular weak layer just wasn’t that thick in this terrain. So it is often interrupted by vegetation and the ground. Near the rigeline and at our highest elevation traveled, the weak layer became thicker, more continuous, and lead to more notable avalanche results.
Storm totals on Washington Gultch Road were around 12″ in wind-sheltered areas. At first, this seemed low but made sense with the settlement. The storm snow was thick and slabby.
Photos:
Date of Observation: 11/29/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Nordic Hill. Northeasterly aspects around 9,000′
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Remotely triggered one small pocket about 12″ deep on the faceted storm interface. Triggered from 100 feet away.
Snowpack: 12″ of new snow. Touchy conditions. Widespread shooting cracks and spiderweb style cracking. There was just enough surface roughness with the ground to keep avalanches from happening on this small slope near town.
Date of Observation: 11/29/2022
Name: billy barr
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic
Weather: Snow started around 7 p.m. and kept up until 6 a.m., though was heaviest from 9-12 p.m. Wind picked up around midnight and stayed steady. There was 9″ new snow and 0.70″ of water content with 16″ on the ground now- deepest this winter. Currently overcast with light to moderate wind and snow has paused for the time being. temperatures have been cool after a high yesterday of 32F and now the low and current of 10F. The new snow, dense and wind blown, is making a solid slab and sitting on top of the rotten base could allow for slab release in higher and steeper areas.
Snowpack:
