Date of Observation: 02/23/2022
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic townsite

Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Obscured cloud cover with light wind, though gusting at times. Snow paused yesterday from mid morning to mid afternoon but picked up after dark with the heaviest coming in the last 2 hours. New snow of 8″ and water of 0.66″. Snowpack is up to 57″. Currently light to moderate snow with little wind but the gusts make it (and me for that matter) nasty. Current temperature a moderate 17F. No visible slide activity but then no visible anything.

Date of Observation: 02/22/2022
Name: Irwin Guides

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Irwin Tenure

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: SS-ASr-R1-D1-O W aspect BTL 10-13″ X 50′ X 150′ triggered from 50′ away (Strike
Three).
SS-ASr-R1-D1.5-O E aspect NTL 14-16″ X 150′ X 250′ triggered from the flat ridge above ( Sonic/ Pre
evac).
Numerous small D1’s W BTL
Weather:
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 02/22/2022
Name: Zach Guy and Zach Kinler

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Schuylkill Ridge to 11,400 ft, traveled mostly on NE aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Wowza. Brief window of vis this afternoon displayed widespread natural slab activity on the steep NE facing rollers below the bench (BTL); counted at least 20 slabs mostly D1 to D1.5 and a few D2s. Slabs consistently were about a foot thick breaking on the “2022 total BS drought sandbox layer” (named by Evan). We had limited views of NTL slopes, but the 3 start zones that we could see all produced large avalanches. The most impressive was Thanksgiving Bowl which ran past the bench and snapped trees, D2.5 in size. Slabs near treeline were about 18″ thick. We skier triggered about 10 slab avalanches; these were all small in size because we were working small terrain features. Some were remotely triggered from short distances, most were triggered with ski cuts.
Weather: Light snowfall through most of the day, with rates increasing around 3 p.m. A brief period of greenhouse effect midday, otherwise overcast or obscured all day. Winds were surprisingly light at ridgetop with light drifting.
Snowpack: We traveled mostly in dense canopy, where the slab/weak layer combo didn’t seem to be an issue. Almost every opening or clearing that we touched produced a rumbling collapse and shooting cracks on slopes less than 36 degrees or so, or avalanched on slopes steeper than that.  Slabs were 12″ to 18″ thick over the well-advertised weak layer. At 10,000′, we measured 12″ (1.0″ SWE) storm snow, and 15″ (1.4″ SWE) down to the facets. On some low angle, southwest facing ridge walking, we got several collapses in wind whales that were a couple feet thick behind tree fences.

Date of Observation: 02/22/2022
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Kebler TH, traveling on the border between the NW and SE forecast areas at below treeline elevations and a variety of aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: While traveling on a low angled slope above a steeper slope I remotely triggered a large avalanche. E to SE facing terrain feature below treeline. Google Earth measures the crown at over 1,500ft wide. The average crown height appeared to be about 25cm, and increased in some wind-loaded areas to an estimated 45 cm’s. This avalanche didn’t run very far into the avalanche path and was D2 or large in size. A crust collapsing into the weak facets below, appeared to drive the extended propagation given how little snow had currently accumulated.

Numerous small soft slab avalanches had previously run on steep NE-facing slopes. I’d estimate that those slabs ran early this morning or last night.

Weather: Obscured sky, light snowfall.

Snowpack: By early afternoon there was about 25cm to 30cm of new snow onto of the old snow surface. The only notable results came from SE to E facing slopes where there was a collapsible crust. Otherwise, NE facing slopes felt just like a fresh storm slab avalanche problem and lacked any persistent slab avalanche characteristics with the current amount of new snot.

Date of Observation: 02/22/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Pavement tour along roadways

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous natural avalanches on east and northeast aspects of Gibson Ridge, Peanut Lake Chutes, and Happy Chutes. Visibility was too poor to see Climax Chutes but the aprons appeared to be free of debris. Most avalanches are D1 in size with some D1.5s. Longer terrain in Happy Chutes may have reached D2 but visibility wasn’t good enough to confirm.
Weather: Light snowfall with obscured skies.
Snowpack: Noticed dust in the bottom portion of the storm snow at valley bottom.

Date of Observation: 02/20/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Snowmobiling Kebler Pass area targeting southern half of compass in Robinson Basin to Evan’s Basin, up to 12,600 ft.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A couple of harmless wet loose sluffs on the SE side of Purple Peak ran today.
Weather: Light winds and minimal snow transport. Clear skies. Mild temps.
Snowpack: We know the north half of the compass is going to be trouble with our current weak layers. Today’s objective was to get a pulse on the near-surface weak layers on the southern half of the compass before the storm. In general, there are two layers of concern worth monitoring on the sunnier aspects.
1) The prolonged dry spell layer is well developed, quite weak, and fairly uniform across all aspects (typically 1.5 or 2.0 mm in size), below one or several sun crusts. The saving grace is that these crusts are thick and strong on the most southerly facing slopes. Crusts become thinner, softer, and more collapsible somewhere around ESE and WSW. There are quite a few variables contributing to crust thickness; in general, the crusts are thicker on steeper start zones, at lower elevations, and in more wind-protected cirques or terrain which get hotter. Higher elevation, moderate angled start zones (34 to 38 degrees) that have seen enough of a breeze to keep surfaces cool have more collapsible crusts on SE and SW aspects.
2) The recent few inches of snow has recrystallized into near-surface facets (up to 1.0 mm in size) on a few slopes, in some cases above or below a very soft, thin, crust. It seems like you need all the right ingredients to find this layer preserved. Not so hot that it got cooked, not so cold that it didn’t produce a melt-layer. Not so breezy that the snow surface is wind packed. The locations where I found relatively large and well preserved near-surface facets was in a protected cirque near treeline.
In summary, the weak layers on the southern quadrant of the rose won’t be as bad as everywhere else, but there are still some potential issues. Rounding the corner towards east and west brings you towards a more concerning setup with thinner crusts over the well-developed dry spell layer.

Date of Observation: 02/20/2022
Name: Ben Pritchett

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Mt. Emmons, Redwell Tour

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: We pushed numerous Dry Loose avalanches in steep, north through east-facing wind-sheltered terrain below treeline. The couple of inches of settled recent snow seemed to prime these particular features, where they would collapse and run before I pushed on the steep part of a roll-over. It was almost like a close-proximity remote trigger Dry Loose avalanche – just an indication of how very weak the near-surface snow is going into this storm.
Weather: Ridgeline Wind Speed: 10-20 mph
Ridgeline Wind Direction: W
Wind Loading: None
Temperature: 20 F
Sky Cover: Few
Depth of Total Snow: 170 cm
Weather Description: Cool, breezy morning, but air temperatures were climbing quickly.
Snowpack: A grab-bag of faceted surfaces. Some were normal, mid-winter faceted surfaces, and others were outrageously weak.
The weakest snow we found was near and below treeline in wind-sheltered northeast and east-facing terrain. Here you can still trigger long-running Dry Loose avalanches, and the these slopes will become dangerous early this week as new snow totals reach around 8 or 10 inches.
Alpine northerly-facing terrain is covered in plenty of weak snow, but these slopes will take more load to grow dangerous.
Southerly-facing terrain is capped by a variety of faceted crusts.

Date of Observation: 02/19/2022

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Small wind slab near the bottom of Schuylkill.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Small wind slab near the bottom of Schuylkill.

Date of Observation: 02/19/2022
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Upper Washington Gulch. Mostly observing between 11,400-12,700ft on E-SE-S aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: 2 notable slab avalanches that looked to be a day or two old.

Purple Ridge, NE, 11,000t NTL. Heavly crossloaded terrain featuer. Best guess is that the crown averaged in the 6 to 12″ range, and maybe a bit deeper where it broke into the wind wale. D2 in size.

Rock Creek, SE, 12,500ft ATL. 1 D1.5 wind slab breaking near the ridge line. 1 D1.5 slab breaking below a cliff band that was likely triggered by some form of sluff off the ridge.

Weather: Clear, fairly consistent wind NTL blowing in the teens, moderate winds in the alpine continuing to drift snow at times.

Snowpack: Fresh wind-loading was isolated in the terrain and not common across the same specific terrain features. I still encountered a few fresh wind-slabs that I chose to avoid throughout the day. Avalanche problems in general on this tour felt fairly isolated as much of the terrain was simply blown back to firmer old layers.

The most concerning thing I encountered was one area where I found multiple stacks of wind boards sandwiching layers of weak facets. This was a south-facing slope at 12,000ft that had seen multiple wind-loading events. I could only observe snowpack structure in the low-angle sections of the slope, somewhere in the 25-degree range. In one area near the bottom of the slope, and in another area near the top of the slope. It would have been interesting to see how much different the structure would have been on the actual steeper section of the slope. The snowpack structure was similar to what I found earlier in the week on low-angle SE to SW slopes near Paradise Divide.

Date of Observation: 02/19/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Climax Chutes. E and NE aspects to 10,800 ft.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Loose dry sluffing is still the primary concern here, although not as widespread as my last visit a couple of weeks ago because sun crusts have encroached on east aspects and wind crusts are scattered about. Still triggered a handful of small sluffs that entrained anywhere from 6″ to 12″, starting to gouge deeper into the pack near rock bands.
Weather: Clear skies, calm winds where we traveled.
Snowpack: 2″ of recent snow is faceting into small grains (~.5mm), on top of well-developed, very weak facets (2 mm). Wind crusts and sun crusts capping facets in some terrain. The transition from thin sun crust to dry facet occurred at roughly 75 degrees, ENE, depending on tree shading and slope angle.

Photos: