Date of Observation: 01/24/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from near Lost Lake

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A handful of previously undocumented deep slabs on East Beckwith, likely from the 12/31 cycle.

Date of Observation: 01/23/2022
Name: Ben Preston

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Near Gothic townsite

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: See photos of debris and damage from the deep slab that ran off of the east face of Gothic around New Year’s Eve.

Date of Observation: 01/23/2022

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Slate River Trailhead

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered sluffs in Climax Chutes

Date of Observation: 01/23/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Mountain from Washington Gulch. Traveled on south through west aspects to 12,600 ft.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered a shallow wet-ish loose sluff that ran about 900 vertical feet down a steep SW facing chute, small in size, but large enough to take you for a ride. There was a small natural loose dry that ran yesterday from an adjacent slope.
Weather: Gorgeous sunny day. Inverted temps. Light ridgetop winds, no snow transport observed anywhere in the zone.
Snowpack: Storm snow has settled to 2″ or 3″. We found isolated drifts up to 15″ thick along the summit ridge of Gothic from previous east winds blowing up the face. The drifts formed on rocks on west-facing terrain, so they weren’t a hazard here.
Further January weak layer documentation: The facets on south aspects are capped by a thick, stout crust with occasional percolation columns into the weak layer. There are small radiation recrystallization facets on the surface; I suspect they got cooked today? Westerly aspects look similar to east aspects from yesterday but with thinner or non-existent wind crusts capping the facets. Tested for deeper instabilities in a shallow west-facing slope and got unreactive results, although the basal weak layer was embedded in talus and not continuous across the pit.

Date of Observation: 01/22/2022
Name: Eric Murrow Ben Prichett

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Cement Creek to Flag Creek to Spring Creek to Taylor River Rd to Upper Taylor and back into Cement Creek. A good portion of this route was just outside the CBAC forecast area to the east.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Observed evidence of several unreported D3 avalanches from the major cycle at the end of December in Upper Taylor drainage, and one fresh Wind Slab avalanche on the north slopes of Mount Tilton, D1.5.
Weather: Clear skies and light to calm winds below treeline. Generally 1 to 3 inches of new snow from Friday’s small storm, with around 6 inches in the localized area near Upper Taylor Creek.
Snowpack: We measured snow depths in numerous places on this long snowmobile tour: 135cm in middle Cement Creek at 10,000′, 175cm in the headwaters of Cement Creek at 11,500′ near Hunter Creek, 110 cm near Spring Creek Reservoir at 9,900′, 135cm near the head of Spring Creek, and 90cm at the junction of Taylor Road and Taylor Pass Rd at 10,000′.

Date of Observation: 01/22/2022
Name: Zach Guy and Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Traveled on easterly and southerly aspects in Poverty Gulch to 12,500 ft.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous loose snow avalanches in the new snow ran today or yesterday, most were very small. A few ran far enough/ gained enough volume to pose a hazard in consequential terrain, D1 in size. We skier triggered a handful of similar sluffs, along with a few of a wetter variety on sunnier aspects. Near mountain top, we triggered a few small soft slabs by tossing rocks onto a suspect north-facing slope. Those slopes had seen just enough wind to add some cohesion to the new snow, and the slabs failed on the weak, faceted snow at the storm interface.
Weather: Clear skies. Calm winds until we reached an exposed ridgeline at 12,000′, where there was just enough wind to cause light drifting.
Snowpack: About 4″ of new, low-density snow. Our obs focused on documenting the freshly buried near-surface weak layers that have been forming this month. At near and above treeline elevations, the January weak layer is characterized by small grained facets, often capped by either wind or sun crusts. The facets are generally fist hard, .5 mm in size, with a few up to .7 mm. Capping crusts are spatially variable depending on wind and sun exposure. Wind crusts vary in thickness and tend to be hard (1F or harder) throughout much of the alpine terrain. Sun crusts are generally soft (4F) and collapsible, up to 2cm thick, on E to SE aspects. They presumably get a bit thicker on due south and southwest, where we had limited travels.

Date of Observation: 01/21/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Mount Emmons, E & NE aspects to 10,800’

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few small skier triggered sluffs in the top 6” of snow
Weather: Overcast, calm winds, very light snowfall
Snowpack: 1cm of new snow covered the weak layers forming on the snow surface. On NE aspects, we found freshly buried surface up to about 9,700 ft. Small near surface facets (.5 to .7 mm) extend to ridgeline. On due east, there’s a thin soft crust capping the facets, and no surface hoar.

Date of Observation: 01/19/2022
Name: Eric Murrow Zach Kinler

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Snowmobile out Kebler Pass to Cliff Creek trail. Skinned around from 10,200 – 10,900 feet on East Beckwith.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Took a closer look at a previously reported avalanche on East Beckwith. This avalanche likely failed around 12/31, was D4 in size and ran approximately 1.25 miles from crown to toe of debris. It trimmed mature trees along the edge of its deposition zone and terminus. Another impressive avalanche from the Holiday natural cycle. See photos and estimated path in Google Earth image.
Weather: Thin high cloud cover to mostly clear skies. Generally light winds below treeline and moderate temperatures.
Snowpack: Near Horse Ranch Park at 8,900 feet the snow depth was 115cm and increased to nearly 250cm at 10,900 on East Beckwith. Basal weak layers in a northeast-facing test profile site at 10,500 feet were 4f+ to 1f- in hand hardness, rounding, and 2-4mm in size. The slab at this semi-sheltered site was around 2 meters thick or slightly more. Facets .5mm (a bit larger but generally below 1mm) were present on protected northerly terrain. An east-facing slope at 10,800 feet had a 1cm melt/freeze crust at the surface with small facets below. A due south slope at 10,800 feet had wet snow at the surface 5cm thick.

Date of Observation: 01/18/2022
Name: Evan Ross & Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Up the RLB skin track. Out Scarps. Drop to Peeler Basin and out OBJ. 9,000ft to 12,300ft. Primary traveling on aspects facing the northern half of the compass.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: All old avalanches from the holiday avalanche cycle.

Weather: Increasing and decreasing sky. Anything from clear to overcast throughout the day. Clam wind.

Snowpack: This tour didn’t encounter a moment where it felt like there was a chance of triggering a slab avalanche. Small sluffs on steep northerly slopes were about it. Managing regrouping areas for the very unlikely chance of triggering a large to very large avalanche seemed to be the best travel advice.

West and NW aspects at NTL elevations had the most dramatic changes from trigger points to a deeper snowpack. Otherwise, we didn’t find ourselves managing trigger point travel advice. Other aspects are either, deep, blown off, or non-problematic.

On a northerly facing slope NTL the snow surface consisted of .5mm or smaller NSF. The snowpack is still supportive to boots NTL/BLT elevations and you can actually take both skis off at once without sinking deeply, which isn’t typical for our snowpack this time of year.

Date of Observation: 01/17/2022
Name: Zach Kinler

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Upper Poverty Gulch to the north side of Augusta. 9,000′-12,000′.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: No new avalanches
Weather: Perfect weather for an alpine tour, Clear skies, broke out of the inversion above about 10,000 ft. Calm to light northerly breezes.
Snowpack: Deep. No signs of instability. Probing across a few easterly aspects at upper elevations which had not avalanched previously, I was not able to find the ground with a 300 cm probe and just about broke the probe getting it through the incredibly hard slabs. Surfaces are a bit roughed up on many north through east aspects. Variable crusts on anything tipping to the south.