Date of Observation: 03/28/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch. Obs come from the Northwest and Southeast zones.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous loose avalanches from the past few days on east and west aspects. I did not observe anything new today between 11am and 430pm. I spotted a small wet slab that likely ran on Sunday 3/27 and a couple loose avalanches on NW slopes of Emmons at 12,000 feet.
Weather: Increasing cloud cover throughout the day and slight increase in winds. Warm temperatures that felt a small amount cooler than the day before.
Snowpack: I was looking to track meltwater depth on northerly slopes. On northeast and northwest slopes around 11,500 feet, I found that meltwater had formed an ice lens above the February facet layer and a small amount of water was oozing through the lens into the mostly dry facet layer. On a drifted east slope at 11,900 feet, I found that meltwater had moved through a very dense 1-meter thick slab past the February weak layer and was pooling in denser snow below Feb facets. On a due north slope at 9500 feet, the meltwater had formed an ice lense above the February facets with liquid water present along the ice lens and weak, dry facets below; on an adjacent northeast portion of this feature the Feb facet layer was wet. See profiles for more details. Low elevation sunny terrain was close to an unsupportive, mushy mess in the later afternoon. I produced a few moderately-sized rolling collapses in the valley bottom around 430.

Date of Observation: 03/28/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Mt. CB

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Spotted a handful of D1.5 to D2 wet loose avalanches on W and NW aspects near and below treeline that ran sometime after I glassed the slopes at 4 p.m. yesterday
Weather: Few clouds, light winds, warm.
Snowpack: Boot penetration was to the ground through wet snow at noon.

Date of Observation: 03/28/2022
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Townsite

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A good number of wet, loose slides were running as the snowpack is rotting out though this should halt with the weather change as the clouds are moving in.
Weather: Yesterday was the third day in a row of 50ºF weather, all record highs for the date, with yesterday’s 58F the warmest as the snowpack has dropped rapidly to the lowest since the beginning of the month at 51″ on the ground now, about 7″ below average for this date. The low overnight 23F and currently 24F as it has become mostly cloudy.
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 03/27/2022

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Road

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Gothics SE side ran down to valley floor. Smaller releases on the E side proper

Date of Observation: 03/27/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Rode out towards West Brush Creek this morning. Turned around because the sled was trenching to the ground in bottomless wet snow. Midday lap on the west side of Snodgrass, and PM bino tour from CBMR.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Continued wet loose activity at all elevations, mostly D1 to D1.5 in size, most abundantly on E/NE aspects. Notable larger slides include: A D2 wet loose that we watched run at 11:20 out of Climax Chutes. Another D2 wet loose off of Gibson Ridge. A gouging wet loose out of the Spoon on Gothic that probably grew to D2 in size. A wet loose that propagated as a relatively narrow wet slab further downslope in Redwell Basin (E, BTL) and was about D2 in size.
Weather: Warm, periods of thin scattered clouds, light winds.
Snowpack: 2″ to 6″ refreeze this morning (depending on elevation and tree cover) was supportive to boots and skis but was generally unsupportive to snowmobiles. We found an isothermal and fully wet snowpack on flat, south, and west facing terrain below treeline. At 11:30 a.m., the crust was starting to thaw and become unsupportive on south aspects, natural activity was already underway by then on east aspects, and west aspects had good corn skiing. One pit on a west aspect of Snodgrass showed a 16″ cohesive wet slab over wet facets. There was a lot of free water pooling on a thin crust just above the dry spell facets, which were also wet but not flooded.

Date of Observation: 03/26/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: 4 p.m. bino tour from top of CBMR

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Good vantage of lots of terrain. Easterly aspects were most active today, with a dozen or so previously undocumented wet loose avalanches, mostly D1 starting from steep rocky terrain features. The largest and most notable was a D2 below Gibson Ridge (E, BTL). There was also one avalanche that broke as a narrow slab above Copper Creek, probably a wet slab (D1.5, SE ATL)

Date of Observation: 03/26/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Poverty Gulch and Slate River Road. Traveled on E, SE, and S aspects to 12,600 ft on Mineral Point.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: East-northeast aspects were fairly active by late morning for wet loose activity, with a handful of D1.5 near and below treeline, and a dozen or so D1s at all elevations. Also a handful of ~D1.5 wet loose on easterly and westerly aspects ran yesterday. A few of these were close, if not to D2 in size.
Weather: Warm, scattered to few clouds this morning. Light to moderate westerly winds at our high point.
Snowpack: Surfaces were frozen and supportive this morning. By 11 or so, we saw natural wet loose activity on easterly aspects. By 11:45, south-facing terrain NTL was producing rollerballs, small wet sluffs to ski cuts, and becoming trap door. At noon, east-facing slopes NTL were producing large pinwheels and rollerballs in the top 10″ or so.
Surfaces are noticeably more hardened by last week’s wind event above treeline and that seems to be helping moderate the effects of meltwater into the snowpack where we traveled, along with a breeze today helping keep surfaces a bit cooler up high.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 03/25/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Traveled on NE, E, SE and S aspects of West Beckwith to 12,000 ft, and took a bino tour along Kebler Pass Road from Lost Lake this afternoon around 3-4 p.m.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Fairly active wet loose day in the Beckwiths and on Mt. Gunnison. Quieter from what I could see in the southern Ruby Range. Natural wet loose activity was most common near and above treeline below rock bands on east to south to west aspects, with some N/BTL activity creeping into northeast aspects. Sizes were generally D1 to D1.5, with a couple that might be approaching D2 in longer terrain. No wet slabs observed so far.
Weather: Warm temps, clear skies, light westerly winds.
Snowpack: Surfaces refroze overnight into supportive crusts. By 11 a.m., ski pen was about a foot deep into wet grains on steep easterly aspects. Good corn on due south around noon. This afternoon, we dug a couple of holes at 10,500 ft on a steep east aspect. Water was pooling on the thin dusty crust that is capping the dryspell facets (2/16 crust), about 2 feet down. The top half of the slab was wet, the bottom half was moist. On northeast aspects BTL, the top 10″ was moist and producing rollerballs. On southeast aspects, wet loose activity was running on the 2/16 crust, which was only about a foot deep at this location; the crust remained intact and supportive to boot pen.

Date of Observation: 03/24/2022
Name: Eric Murrow Evan Ross

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: MT Emmons, NE-E, 9,000-10,600ft.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:  I glassed terrain from the pavement around 5pm and only observed a single wet avalanche on a southeast, near treeline slope on Peeler Peak.  It looked close to large size and originated beneath a very rocky area.

Weather: Few clouds, warm temps, and breezily light wind.

Snowpack: We targeted 3 pits to check on the progress of the wetting front. These were east-facing sites, 1 below 30 degrees, and 2 above 30 degrees, right around 10.500ft. In all 3 locations, the wetting front was within 1 to 2cm of the February Sand Box. Some of that free water was being held up and pooling on crusts higher in the snowpack. A couple of ECTN and ECTX results, and 1 CTH result on the Sand Box. Those facets are still 2mm in size and 4f hard, under small-grained 1F snow.

We were surprised to see the free water having progressed so far in this snowpack. We were traveling through the area between 1 and 3pm, but the light breeze helped keep a very thin crust on the snow surface and create the initial impression that things were not heating up from afar.

By the time we were traveling on these easterly-facing slopes, they seemed to have passed their prime for a loose wet avalanche problem. By the time we were headed out after 3pm a few westerly-facing slopes looked primed for some form of a loose wet avalanche problem.  A low elevation southeast slope, around 9,000 feet, started to feel punchy and was close to a trap door isothermal mess at 4pm (snow depth around 90cm).

5506

Date of Observation: 03/23/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch to Elkton and tour around sunny side of Mount Baldy

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: no fresh avalanches were observed
Weather: Clear skies and strong northerly winds. There was constant snow transport at upper elevations. Much of the blowing snow appeared to be blasted into the atmosphere, but isolated leeward features were forming hard slabs.
Snowpack: I went hunting for fresh Wind Slab formation on the south half of the compass and found many leeward features to be blasted by the wind and not forming fresh hard slabs. One small south-facing feature near treeline was well-drifted, around a foot deep, and produced propagating test results while I was isolating the column. This location had two distinct thin slabs (up to pencil hard) stacked above a melt-freeze crust. This feature was adjacent to a good-sized northerly fetch. Surprisingly, I was not able to trigger this slope by stomping around. In this area, I was able to identify drifted features by a smooth-ish appearance.
I also dug a quick profile on a west-facing near treeline slope to gather more data on the Persistent Slab problem. Here the slab was 70cm thick and up to pencil hard. No results in standard ECT, but when I removed most of the slab, I was able to get a propagating result. The weak layer was 4finger minus in hardness and 1-1.5mm in size and rounding.