Date of Observation: 12/19/2021
Name: Bud Tymczyszyn

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Red Lady Glades from Kebler TH.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: Clear and cold, -7 — mid 20s
Snowpack: Dug a pit off the skin-track at 10,400 NE 28deg slope. Got a collapse while digging, and a propagating test result on the basal facets.  ECTP14SC at 23cm.

Also dug a pit to look at snowpack structure on a SSE aspect at 11,400ft. Only potential area of concern was a soft slab resting on a 1cm crust down about 20cm. Didn’t get a propagating result at this interface and saw no signs of instability on a nearby wind-loaded test slope.

We primarily traveled on southerly facing terrain with no other signs to instability. Snow surfaces stayed cold on these lower angled slopes.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 12/18/2021
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Mount Whetstone, South to east to north aspects up to 12,200 ft.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Some old slides and ski triggered a 2” wind slab on a north aspect ATL
Weather: Cold, light winds, clear skies.
Snowpack: In wind-sheltered below treeline terrain, we observed continuous collapses while breaking trail, some localized and about a dozen rumbling collapses that propagated up to 100 ft. The culprit was the 12/6 surface hoar layer, a little more than a foot deep below a faceting soft slab. As we ascended to near and above treeline, the signs of instability stopped; slabs were denser and the surface hoar changed to just facets/depth hoar. Stability tests on a low angle east aspect at 11800 ft produced a mix of propagating and non-propagating results below a 2 foot slab (4F to 1F hard) on the 12/6 crust facet complex. (ECTP26, ECTN26, ECTX, PST55/100 END). See profile. Snow surfaces are faceting at all elevations, with small surface hoar growth below treeline. The 12/15 surface hoar layer is also well preserved below a few inches of snow, at least 10mm in size.  Most of the alpine start zones where we traveled were scoured from the big wind event on 12/15, big erosional features and bare ground exposed in places.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 12/17/2021
Name: Ben Pritchett

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Road to East River

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: Ridgeline Wind Speed: 10-20 mph
Ridgeline Wind Direction: W
Wind Loading: None
Temperature: 15 F
Sky Cover: Overcast
Depth of New Snow: 4 cm
Depth of Total Snow: 65 cm
Weather Description: Light snow showers, chilly, just a bit of wind, but not enough to move snow in the valley.
Snowpack: Several large, slope-scale collapses with spiderweb cracks where settled slabs sat previously undisturbed on old weak snow. Where I found snow deeper than around 2.5′ deep, predictably the slope would collapse and crack. Where the snowpack was shallower on slopes that lacked the old snow, the Dec 9-10 storm snow is beginning to facet and loose strength (in this particularly cold valley).

Date of Observation: 12/16/2021
Name: Jeff Banks

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Forest Road going up to green lakes

Observed avalanche activity: No
Snowpack: Big collapse in an open clearing of a road cut, dropped a couple inches. To paraphrase an old Cake song; bowel shaking earth quakes of doubt & remorse. Skinned for a couple of km of low angle forest and this was perhaps the most wide open clearing we encountered & notably only collapse, in otherwise dense, silent forest.

Date of Observation: 12/17/2021
Name: Alex Tiberio

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: NE run on snodgrass

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Debris from last major cycle mostly in areas with dense tree cover
Weather: Mostly clear skies with some snow flurries
Snowpack: Touchy on NE aspects. Dug a pit at the top of 3rd Bowl ECTP23 @ 10cm PSTend 25/100 @ 10cm Skied lower angled terrain near the saddle large whumping collapses while skiing

Date of Observation: 12/17/2021
Name: Ben Ammon

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: 3 laps at Coneys

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack: Large collapse and cracks shooting 50-75 feet in the start zone of 1st Bowl proper (skiers left of the slide on 12/10). It was fairly stubborn, once it collapsed it fractured most of the start zone but didn’t slide.

Date of Observation: 12/17/2021
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Traveled on NE to SE aspects near and below treeline, lower Slate.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Nothing recent. Documented more activity from last cycle.
Weather: Very light snowfall at times. Mostly cloudy skies, light winds, no transport observed.
Snowpack: We found about 6″ to 10″ of recent snow over a preserved surface hoar layer that somehow survived the wind event and was buried on 12/15. I found this layer consistently in hand pits up to about 10,000 ft in sparsely gladed, wind sheltered terrain on northerly aspects. I didn’t see it near ridgeline start zones. Not enough snow on this surface hoar layer for slab concerns at the moment..
We experienced a handful of collapses on basal facets near valley bottom on low angle terrain, some were localized, some radiated up to 100 ft. Many occurred after the second or third skier in the skin track had crossed. Stability tests near and below treeline on shady aspects produced hard, propagating results on the 12/6 facets. Almost all of the steep terrain that we passed by today had slid naturally during the previous cycle. Those slopes did not show signs of instability.
There were small, localized drifts from the 12/15 wind event behind tree fences and near ridges. Ski cuts and cornice drops didn’t produce any signs of instability with these wind slabs.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 12/17/2021
Name: Travis Colbert

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Up the gentle ridge across the gully from the main Red Lady skin track toward Coon Basin. Stopped just shy of Coon ridge (around 11,300 ft) and made some mellow turns in the upper glades.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Mostly sunny at 11AM becoming mostly cloudy by early afternoon. Very light SW breeze with intermittent snow flurries, but no accumulation.
Snowpack: Total depth depended on elevation and aspect, but around 60-70cm in the upper glades with 3-5cm new snow on a 5cm sun crust. The crust was more pronounced on southerly aspects and became less noticeable with the slightest tilt to the east. No signs of instability on 30-32 degree slopes.