Date of Observation: 03/31/2021
Name: Evan Ross, Zach Kinler

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Treasury
Aspect: North, North East, East, South
Elevation: 9,000-13,300

Avalanches: A few small wind slabs that had run over the last couple days. 1 one NE and a few on E to SE. All above treeline.

Weather: Cool northerly winds helped keep the heating in check. Clear Sky.

Snowpack: Normal caution on steep slopes or for small isolated avalanche problems. We considered trying to avoid a few trigger points when we were exposed to high consequence terrain. Thin surface slabs from the previous winds were stubborn, but still something we ended up managing a little in extreme terrain. Plenty of dry snow out there that is waiting to transition during the upcoming heatwave. On the way home there were lots of glossy-looking snow surfaces down at lower elevations.

Date of Observation: 03/30/2021
Name: Jack Caprio, Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Kebler Corridor
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South
Elevation: 9,500′-12,000′

Avalanches: No new avalanches observed

Weather:  Sky cover became partly cloudy in the morning with lots of sunshine by noon. Light northerly winds with moderate gusts. Warm temperatures near and below treeline out of the wind.

Snowpack:

We targeted wind-loaded slopes up to 12k in search of wind slab and persistent slab problems.  Recent wind-drifting in this area did not create much Wind Slab formation. We did step into steep N-facing, slightly wind-loaded alpine terrain. Near ridgeline, N/ NW wind events throughout the season had made the snowpack very shallow. The first 50 vertical feet down consisted of a very shallow mix of facets and thin windboard layers. After about 50 vertical feet the snowpack became deep and uniform again and we saw no signs of instability.

We briefly ascended a southeast-facing slope near treeline without much previous drifting and found HS between 70 and 100cm with a moist surface crust just supportive enough to carry skis, but not boots.  The snowpack below was weak isothermal snow to the ground without any slab.

Date of Observation: 03/27/2021

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: West Elks
Aspect: South East, South
Elevation: 12,000′

Avalanches: Other than some smaller sheds of recent snow attributed to solar warming below rock bands and such, no recent notable avalanches observed. While traversing the ridge to access our ski line, my partner put a left ski just a little to far out on a big cornice and punched through far enough to trigger a school bus-sized cornice fall. The ridge is very sharp (knife ridge) in this particular spot and his right ski didn’t leave bare rock on the windward side of the cornice when it failed. Fortunately, my buddy was in a safe enough location to not take a ride, but it was certainly a sobering reminder to give every cornice it’s due respect and always ensure you are in a safe place when negotiating the beast. It was a big cornice failure and entrained localized snow on it’s descent, however, it didn’t propogate much beyond the immediate path. Probably ran around 1000′. This cornice, as I assume most are currently, was primed and ready to go. The pictures come from my flip phone, so I apologize for the poor quality.
Weather: Ridge winds were moderate from the North. Pretty pleasant on the climb to the ridge. Lots of sun.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 03/28/2021
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Ruby Range
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation: 9,000 – 12,100′

Avalanches: 2 recent cornice falls. One on Garfield Peak plowed to the ground in a steep, rocky feature (D1.5), one on Owen triggered several layers of slab avalanches and ran impressively far (D2).
Dozens of small wet loose avalanches from yesterday, generally D1. Wet activity continued today.
Weather: Light winds this morning, some moderate gusts midday. Clear skies and warm temperatures.
Snowpack: Wet loose activity: below treeline east and a few northeast aspects were active today, south aspects are transitioning to stable corn snow. Near and above treeline, activity continued on east, southeast, and south aspects. We finished the tour before westerly aspects warmed up.
We rode steep north and northeast facing terrain with no signs of instability, these slopes were either scoured or protected from yesterday’s northerly winds. There was a northwest facing slope that we avoided after probing revealed a poor structure (~2′ -3′ slab over weak facets). Based on debris evidence, it looked like this slope had avalanched earlier in the year.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 03/27/2021
Name: Jack Caprio Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Kebler Pass
Aspect: North, North East, East, West, North West
Elevation: 9,400-12,500

Avalanches: 1 intentionally ski-triggered wind slab avalanche on heavily loaded east-facing test slope above treeline. The crown ranged from 6-24 inches. The larger part of the crown (2 ft) was the trigger point. This was the most windloaded area on the slope. The crown pulled back about a foot above the skier but the skier was able to easily ski out of it because the slope was small.  A couple of other small slabs in the area that released in the past 12 hours or so from wind effect.

15-20 small loose wet avalanches on sunny near and above treeline terrain. The near treeline elevation band had a more widespread avalanche cycle due to continued winds and cloud cover above treeline helping keep surfaces cooler and denser.
Weather: Few to scattered skies throughout the morning. Clouds cleared around 3pm as the solar intensity increased. Moderate northwest winds with strong gusts.
Snowpack: Recent storm snow consisted of about 10-12 inches earlier in the day. This new storm snow rapidly settled to about 8 inches on E and W aspects as the snow moistened.  Numerous rollerballs and pinwheels observed.  The snow stayed dry on steep north aspects.

Above treeline, NW and W winds continued to deposit snow onto leeward ridgelines. In the alpine, we chose to stick to terrain that had not previously avalanched during the February cycles. Very small wind slab pockets were our only signs of instability on alpine N-facing terrain.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 03/27/2021
Name: Evan Ross and Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Ruby Range

Avalanches: See photos and captions. A handful of slab avalanches, D1 to D2 that ran in the last day or two. These appeared to generally involve just the new and windblown snow from the past few days, or wet sluffs today. One on the NE face of OBJ was thick enough it might have broken into older layers, although it was too far away to say anything with confidence.

Photos: