Date of Observation: 02/25/2022
Name: Zach Kinler

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Wash Gulch to Top of the World

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous D2-D2.5 avalanches failing on the mid-February junk show with brief views towards the Ruby Range. Lots of action on E-NE facing slopes. Looking at crowns, most likely failed on 2/22 and 2/23. A couple looked to have failed a bit more recent due to ongoing wind loading.
Weather: Cold and Blustery, clearing skies throughout the day
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 02/25/2022
Name: Zach Kinler

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Wash Gulch to Top of the World

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous D2-D2.5 avalanches failing on the mid-February junk show with brief views towards the Ruby Range. Lots of action on E-NE facing slopes. Looking at crowns, most likely failed on 2/22 and 2/23 with 1 very sharp looking crown that likely failed sometime in the last 24 hours.
Weather: Cold and Blustery, clearing skies throughout the day
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 02/25/2022
Name: Zach Guy and Zach Kinler

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Snowmobiled Washington Gulch, skied in Rock Creek area. Traveled on low slope angles on east, south, and west aspects to 11,500 ft.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Where to start…. Extensive slab activity on almost every steep bit of E and NE terrain from Meridian Lake to Elkton Knob. A lot of this was previously documented in obs from Eric and Billy. However, I counted at least 3 or 4 slides that looked fresh, likely ran last night or yesterday from wind drifting. These were on E to NE aspects NTL, ~D2 in size. Same story in Rock Creek: extensive activity near and below treeline on E to N aspects. The SE bowl above Rock Creek also ran mid-storm; crown was blown back in but we could see D2 debris. We also got a late afternoon peak of the Ruby Range in poor light and saw a number of large crowns, D2.5 on average, some looked quite fresh. Kinler will submit those in a separate ob.
Weather: Cold temps. We observed periods of light to moderate drifting in the alpine from westerly winds. Clouds decreased through the day.
Snowpack: Measured 65 cm slab in a sheltered, BTL location in Rock Creek. Almost every time I rode into an open slope in Wash Gulch I saw extensive shooting cracks under my sled, some ran several hundred feet. Signs of instability became infrequent as we transitioned to skis near treeline; slabs are stiffer from wind effects and I think we were also traveling in an area where winds had beat up the weak layer. Once we descended to treeline, rumbling collapses became frequent again. In some cases, it was the 2nd or 3rd person to cross the slope that would trigger the collapse.

Date of Observation: 02/23/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Walrod Gulch out Cement Creek.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Two natural avalanches occurred while a person was walking dog(s) out Walrod Gulch in Cement Creek. Large in size; depositing a dangerous amount of snow onto the summer road up Walrod Gulch near the Caves Connector trail. See photos. This is likely the same avalanche reported in this observation from earlier today – https://cbavalanchecenter.org/walrod-2/
Weather:
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 02/23/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch TH to Elkton area and lap near Coneys.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous avalanches in upper Washington Gulch. Many slopes greater than 35 degrees on the north half of the compass ran naturally. Only observed 2 D2 size avalanches, but the terrain I was able to see were all relatively short hills. I remotely triggered a drifted southeast slope above Elkton from a couple hundred feet away while snowmobiling. Crowns ranged from 30cm to 80cm. The largest avalanche was the east bowl off Elkton Knob.
Weather: Cloudy skies with generally light SW winds (some moderate gusting). From 1 pm to 330 pm snowfall rates increased dramatically around S2 with brief periods up to S5.
Snowpack: At 300pm in Elkton, I measured 30 inches of storm snow with 2.4 inches snow water equivalent. Ski pen was around 12 inches and boot pen was nearly full storm depth. While traveling around I regularly produced moderate collapses and cracking with a few of the rumbling variety. On drifted features, it often took a slight bounce to produce the collapse; the stiffer the snow the further cracks and whumping traveled. We experienced even a few localized collapses in forested terrain near Coneys. The only slopes in this area that did not collapse and shoot cracks were south and southwest around 11k in elevation.

East and southeast slopes in this area had thin, soft melt/freeze crusts capping the facets below. The remotely-triggered avalanche from the drifted southeast slope had a 4cm melt/freeze crust that collapsed. Stability tests on east and southeast features produced easy and moderate propagating results.

The couple of south and southwest features I traveled across around 11,000 feet did not show signs of instability. Some cracking that ran up to a ski length, but it only broke down about 12 inches into the top of the storm snow. The south and southwest features I looked at had strong melt/forms to the ground beneath the new snowfall. Stability tests did not produce results on the interface between the old crust and the recent snow.

Date of Observation: 02/23/2022
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Kebler Pass

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Remotely triggered 1 small slab avalanche on a west-facing slope at 11,400ft. Widespread natural avalanche activity that has been well summed up in other observations.

Date of Observation: 02/23/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Pavement obs from HWY 135

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous natural avalanches near and below treeline on east and northeast slopes. Many D1’s and a couple of D2’s on longer slopes or drifted terrain features. Never got a view of alpine terrain or the northern end of Whetstone.
Weather: A brief clearing gave me views of the southern end of Whetstone near and below treeline.
Photos:

Date of Observation: 02/23/2022
Name: Billy Rankin

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Broke trail out Wash gulch to Coney’s, up standard skin track, across the top and we skied down the far left side of second bowl and low exit just above creek.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Half dozen or so small naturals from the trailhead on the classic Meridian Lake indicator slopes. All NE, BTL, 35 degrees. SS-N-R1-D1.5-I (2/22) Average 30cm deep, 50- 600’ wide, ran 100-300’. The classic corniced ridge top above long lake ran and looked to be full storm depth 600′ wide, ran several hundred feet.
One remotely triggered small avalanche on the first section of the skin track on small isolated steep gully feature (see photo). Remote triggered convex bowl from 50 feet away, 60cm‘s deep up to 80cm, 250’ feet wide ran maybe 200 feet downhill into the trees. (see photo)
We traverse across the top of coneys first and second bowl stomping on cornice but was unable to trigger anything else, though it may have run overnight or yesterday?
Weather: OVC, winds southerly moving a lot of snow, light snow in the am picked up in the pm and periods of S2 by 14:00.
Snowpack: Tons of collapsing all day produced shooting cracks up to 50 feet or more at times
Quick test pit dug just before ridge top HS: 180cm 60cm of storm snow sitting on 1mm facets. CTM 11 Sudden collapse on the facets. Storm snow showing right side up 4F at the bottom to F on top.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 02/23/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Kebler Pass Road, town, and Pitchfork neighborhood

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Coding in a few more fresh slab avalanches that ran today on small slopes near town. D1 to D1.5

Date of Observation: 02/23/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Mount Axtell ridgeline and west facing glades to 12,000 ft.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A handful of naturals that ran last night and this morning on Axtell, some D2s in 2nd Bowl and what looks like a D3 where the Pencil ran wall to wall and propagated into the lower part of Wang Chung. We remotely triggered at least one D2.5 in 2nd Bowl, and came across another very fresh slide that we either remotely triggered from very far away or it ran naturally minutes before we got there. There were also a bunch of natural slides above Coal Creek and one above Kebler Pass road, D1 to D1.5 in size. Details in the avalanche tabs.
Weather: Moderate snowfall this morning changed to light snowfall and light winds midday. A pulse came through around 3 p.m. that brought an hour of heavy snowfall rates and notable blowing snow off of the trees.
Snowpack: Widespread collapsing. We even got regular localized collapses in tight trees, which was a noticeable difference from yesterday. It seems that the slopes that were heavily blasted by northerly winds prior to the storm are bonding better than everywhere else. I’m hypothesizing that based on crown line locations and the little bit of feedback I was able to get underfoot in the wind-crusted terrain.