Date of Observation: 12/28/2021
Name: Turner Petersen
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Seen from Brush creek road.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Large natural on what must be a 50-100 year path on the south face of Mt. CB. Looks like slide stared near the top of the large v of dense trees above country club couloir. Ran all the way into the dense aspens above the upper loop.
Weather: Storming.
Date of Observation: 12/28/2021
Name: billy barr
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic
Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: More of the same, though for a little while Sunday afternoon there was a ‘normal’ light snow and at under 7% water content. But late afternoon the wind kicked back up and was strong and steady all night with generally light snow, stopping around 5 a.m. The 24 hour totals are 7″ new (4½” overnight) and water 0.61″ (0.42″ overnight) and the snowpack is at 43″. About 90-95% of the time if the Gothic area gets wind, we get a decreased amount of snowfall, and this is the case now. Currently it is not snowing but obscured cloud cover and steady wind, 7-10 W gusting to 35. High was just 21F but low was a mild 13 and current 14F. Walked through drifts chest high getting to my solar panels this morning and there is a lot of wind loading once again. It is like building a brick wall but each layer leans out a little bit further each course so eventually it will fall over. billy
Date of Observation: 12/28/2021
Name: Cosmo Langsfeld
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Cement Creek Ranch
Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: 5ish inches since 5pm Monday. Windy.
Date of Observation: 12/27/2021
Name: Zach Guy and Eric Murrow
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Snowmobiled out Cement Creek to about 10,500 ft, near Hunter Hill trail.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Looks like one fresh persistent slab ran with yesterday’s winds. Spotted two other persistent slabs that ran during the Santa Slammer. All of these were on relatively small slopes so D1.5 in size or less. Nothing significant has hit the road (yet), a few small debris piles in the narrows near the start of Upper Cement Trail.
Weather: Light to moderate snowfall. Light winds in valley bottom.
Snowpack: In windsheltered, below treeline terrain, persistent slab thickness ranged from 2 feet (near Reno Road split) to a little over 3 feet (near Hunter Hill). We observed several rumbling collapses in low-angle terrain. One occurred while I was standing outside of a pit, while Eric was boondocking over a 1/4 mile away. I think he triggered it. It was the loudest and most startling collapse I have ever heard…it sounded like a jet engine. I could hear it approaching from a distance across a wide open slope and watched the slope drop. I triggered another large collapse riding in sparse trees and saw all of the trees start shaking in front of me. Eric was a long distance away and he also heard “what sounded like an explosive detonate”. Stability tests produced hard, propagating results on the 12/6 interface. We rode on or near a handful of relatively small, steep test slopes without triggering anything. The 12/23 facets appear to be rounding and hardening, but the 12/6 depth hoar/ surface hoar falls out of the pit, it is still fist hard and cohesionless.
Date of Observation: 12/27/2021
Name: Travis Colbert
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Standard skin-track up the east side of Snodgrass from the main parking area.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Most of the steep NE terrain along the ridge from the weather station to the end of the road had run naturally. 80-100cm crowns and flagging high on the large spruce trees.
Weather: Light to moderate snowfall and strong SSW winds in the open terrain. Quiet in the trees with knee-deep, low density powder!
Snowpack:
Date of Observation: 12/27/2021
Name: Andrew Breibart
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch TH to SW Slopes less than 30 degrees.
Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Overcast skies with S-1 snow. Winds were variable with strong gusts.
Snowpack: No whomping or shooting cracks. Boot pen: 15 inches; Ski pen 5 inches. Skin track in unprotected terrain had filled back in.
Date of Observation: 12/27/2021
Name: billy barr
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic
Weather: Sunday was cloudy and very windy all day long with off and on very light wind driven snowfall. This continued through most of the night with wind gradually slowing then letting up around 5 a.m. Currently obscured, but no wind with light snowfall. There was 4″ new snow and 0.37″ water- lighter density since picking up a few hours ago. Snowpack is at 40″. High temperature was 25F and currently the morning low of 13F.
Date of Observation: 12/26/2021
Name: Than Acuff
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Kept it in the trees on NE aspect on western end of SE zone.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Nothing new from ones already documented.
Weather: Blowy and snowy. Quite pleasant in the trees though except the one tree bomb on my melon.
Snowpack: Dense but fun and sprongy skiing in terrain no steeper than 30-degrees. Snow was fairly well protected in the trees only densified (is that even a word? It is now) by the wind, warm temps and littered with pine needles. Ski pen 8-10″. Did skin up above road on SW aspect across small, steeper pitch. Ski pen much deeper and got a sizable collapse but did not see any shooting cracks in the ground blizzard.
Date of Observation: 12/26/2021
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Snodgrass 11k
Observed avalanche activity: No
Snowpack: Snodgrass N 11k snowpit. HS 125, CT 9 95 cm up, CT 15 20 cm up, ECTN despite whaling.
Date of Observation: 12/26/2021
Name: Jeff Banks
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Avoided the Critical Danger Zones from the Bulletin by skiing SW Aspect BTL
Observed avalanche activity: No
Snowpack: BTL SW Aspect, No Signs of Instability on slopes <30º
A little time on Flats & Shady aspects with 3 whumpfs
Impressive wind transport:
Wind Tunnel Effect at Valley Bottom from the North
Saw our tracks from 2 weeks ago emerge at ridgeline after this storm’s snow was ripped away from the West
