Date of Observation: 12/09/2021
Name: Joey Carpenter

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Toured up the ‘normal’ Coneys skinner until the downed trees became unbearable then traversed out onto what was (a few days ago) the bare side of Convex Corner.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Was able to get one small pocket to pull out via ski cut on the far right edge of photo. <TL-NE-SS-ASi-R1D1. About 50 feet wide and ran around 20 feet.
Weather: Relatively warm, light to no precip from 6:30a-8a while I was out. Light winds from the W at ridge top, calm below. Overcast.
Snowpack: ~8 inches of new snow from yesterday/last night. On the sunny side sitting on the ground and in shaded areas sits on a rotten base that varies in depth up to an additional 7-8 inches (estimated). Several small whumpfs and associated cracking while traveling through undisturbed areas where base snow was present. Storm snow hadn’t gained enough slab structure yet to release with much energy, which will quickly change as this second pulse of snow comes this afternoon.

Date of Observation: 12/09/2021
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Southeast Mountains

Weather: Snow started mid afternoon and was generally light, picking up after dark for abut 3 hours and then light through the night. Temperature rose into the night and that and some wind made for a dense snow. The 24 hour total was 7″ new and water 0.61″ and the snowpack sits at winter’s deepest o 11″. Wind was moderate and moved snow, becoming calm around 4 a.m. Currently obscured with light snow and 25F after an overnight low of 24 while high was 28. And away we go.

Date of Observation: 12/08/2021
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Quick morning tour in the Upper Slate, traveled on East to North facing aspects to 12,000 ft.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered a few shallow wind slabs on crossloaded northeast aspects near and above treeline. Slabs were up to 10” thick, didn’t run far, and failed on the Dec 6 facet layer.
Weather: Light winds, clouds increased to overcast by 10 am. Very light snowfall started at 11 on our way out.
Snowpack: The few inches of Tuesday nights snow started faceting overnight, and is currently not bonded well to underlying melt freeze crusts. Thus, I expect aspects with a crusty 12/6 interface to be problematic with this incoming storm as well, at least in the short term. Shady aspects are already demonstrating their poor bonding to 12/6 with easily triggered pockets and cracking anywhere that there’s been enough wind transport for slab formation.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 12/07/2021
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Upper Slate River up the standard track to ridge and followed ridge to 12,000 feet.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Visibility was obscured by low-level clouds during my tour so I did not get any views of drifted terrain in the Ruby Range. I intentionally triggered a shallow slab by kicking a cornice on an east slope at 11,800 feet, D1 in size – hardly big enough to knock you over let alone carry you. Max crown depth was 10 inches but only extend downslope 15 feet, slowly ran 150 vertical feet.
Weather: Mostly cloudy skies with low cloud cover obscuring visibility. Sporadic snow showers without any accumulations during the day. Moderate westerly winds above treeline.
Snowpack: I measured 4.5 inches of new snow at 11,200 feet. I walked along an east-facing ridgeline from 11,500 to 12,000 feet assessing slab thickness on drifted terrain and found fresh cornice formation up to 18 inches thick and slabs up to 10 inches thick but slabs quickly tapered off once 20 feet below ridgetop. Cracks ran up to 30 with just a single very small avalanche triggered. Snow available for transport on the adjacent westerly terrain appeared to have largely run dry.

I dug to profiles on easterly aspects at 11,500 feet. One was on the southern edge of east at 105* and I found 5 inches of storm snow resting above a stack of melt/freeze crusts that were connected by ice columns from meltwater during last week’s record high temperatures. This structure appeared quite strong and would tolerate a very large load prior to collapsing (see photo). On the northerly fringe of east aspect at 75*, I found a snowpack that was largely free of melt form grains with several prominent weak layers that formed between each storm during November (see Snowpilot profile).

While descending below treeline I ski cut some tiny facet sluffs on northeast-facing slopes. The facet sluff’s entrained about 10 inches of snow as they ran.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 12/06/2021
Name: Travis Colbert

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Drove up Washington Gulch to the 403 TH to observe the snow coverage prior to this week’s storms.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: Light flurries as incoming storm system was just arriving.
Snowpack: Shallow and patchy. Coney’s had continuous (and weak) coverage; south and west side of Gothic was bone dry (except for NW aspects); SE & SW slopes around Elkton were dry.

Date of Observation: 12/07/2021
Name: Billy Barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Weather obs from Gothic townsite.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: And off we go. Sort of. Generally light snow starting after dark and stopping not long after midnight. There was 3½” new and water of 0.21″- a light 6% density. Wind early but calm much of the night. Currently cloudy with a few little breaks in the clouds, while no wind for now. Yesterday’s high was just 39F, the lowest high temperature in 11 days, and the morning low and current 21F. Snowpack is at 4½” but very uneven as is the case early in the winter. Really not much going on down here but given this winter it is a big deal. billy

Date of Observation: 12/06/2021
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Westerly terrain near Elkton on Anthracite Mesa high point (Elkton Knob) . Traveled in near treeline elevation band on west and northwest aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Pushed on a short but steep northwest-facing feature at 11,100 feet and got a very small facet sluff to run a short distance and entrain much of the shallow snowpack.
Weather: Thin, high clouds began to move in by midday. Generally light westerly winds with some moderate gusts.
Snowpack: I have not traveled across many westerly aspects over the recent dry spell so the goal of this trip was to check out some west through northwest features near treeline. All features just north of due west were very weak with just a thin melt-freeze crust or were fully dry. Snowpack ranged from 30 – 60cm deep. Surface Hoar was sporadically present on these windward slopes and generally around 5mm in size. As aspect rolled from due west to southwest, the snow surface went from a thin crust to presumably thicker crusts and then quickly to mostly bare dirt on southwest.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 12/06/2021
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest and Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Various locations around our forecast area

Date of Observation: 12/05/2021
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Driving tours the last two days, Gothic Road, Wash Gulch, near town, and Cement Creek to Reno Ridge

Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Sunny.
Snowpack: See sketch and photos. The southern half of the compass has mostly melted off to dirt or patchy coverage. Fairly continuous snow coverage on NW to N to NE aspects and high E aspects, apart from some brush or talus protrusion in certain areas. I didn’t travel much on snow, so surface characteristics are estimated based on previous observations. A few roadside handpits on shady aspects near and above treeline show very weak, striated facets and depth hoar throughout (2mm to 4mm). Most below treeline locations that I looked at had large surface hoar (>1cm) on flat or shady aspects. About as weak and ugly as it gets.