Date of Observation: 04/01/2023
Name: Travis Guy and billy barr
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Very large persistent slab on the east face of Gothic. Slide ran after 4 p.m. yesterday. It did not reach the county road anywhere but did hit an RMBL cabin though right at the end of a side shoot off the main run. so it looks like it may be OK. But it’s buried so who knows.
Photos:
Date of Observation: 04/01/2023
Name: billy barr
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic townsite
Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Light to moderate snow Friday morning with light afternoon snow and steady wind with strong gusts as it remained cloudy all day. Wind slowed after dark, becoming light just before sunrise with gradual clearing after midnight. Total new 24 hour snowfall was 5½” new with water 0.38″. Snowpack reached 95½” (a record depth for March 31) and now sits at 94½” with a partly cloudy sky and just a light breeze. March ended with 102½” snowfall with water of 9.24″- 4th most snow in a March and second most water content since 1975. And just think- we were all here to shovel through it.
Date of Observation: 03/31/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Baxter Basin area; traveled on North to East to Southeast aspects to about 11,000′.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Ski triggered a 10″ wind slab on a small test slope. Visibility was too poor to see most avalanche terrain.
Weather: Moderate to heavy snowfall. Strong, variable winds. They were initially blowing down the basin (out of the west) and then switched to blowing up the basin (out of the north). Periods of intense wind drifting.
Snowpack: Valley floor storm totals ranged from about 10″ at the Slate TH to 20″ in Poverty Gulch. In wind-sheltered terrain, the snow was fairly low density and cohesionless, and sluffed in steep terrain. The snow got noticeably thicker and denser in wind-affected terrain. Drifts were up to 3 feet thick in some areas, and other areas were scoured down to yesterday’s crust. I got a mix of shooting cracks and nothing on steep drifted features. Cracks were up to 30′ long.
Join CBAC staff and friends on Friday, April 7th at the Talk of the Town to celebrate another great season. Enjoy a free beer and music by Atmospheric Whiskey River. The party starts at 5:00 pm and the music starts at 6:00 pm.
Date of Observation: 03/30/2023
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Traveled above the East River just up valley from the confluence with Brush Creek.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: One slab avalanche that ran in the upper snowpack that likely failed during warming a few days ago on low elevation east slope. Intentionally triggered a Windslab on a small northwest-facing slope near valley bottom, this feature has an abnormally huge fetch. Wind Slab was resting above 1mm facets above a crust.
Weather: Mostly cloudy skies with moderate winds through 2pm. Snowfall and strong SSW winds started around 3pm.
Snowpack: HS through this low-elevation terrain typically ranged from 90 to 120cm outside of drifted terrain. A quick profile on a south-southeast slope at 9,100 feet showed a strong structure with ice columns to the ground which indicated meltwater has made its way through the entire snowpack (this strong structure is not common throughout the greater forecast area). A profile into the bed surface of the intentionally trigger slide, on a drifted northwest slope, showed a 10″ thick crust/ice column matrix resting about 2 feet of depth hoar. Surface conditions on northerly features were a thin melt/freeze crust with 6 inches of faceted snow below.
Date of Observation: 03/30/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Rec tour on Axtell 2nd Bowl
Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Clouds increased mid-morning, as did winds. Drifting off of the high peaks.
Snowpack: No signs of instability skiing steep northerly terrain below treeline.
Thin (2-3cm) breakable (1F- to 4F-) crusts span east to due northeast (45 degrees) in steep terrain. This storm interface doesn’t look as bad as the 3/20 interface, but I don’t expect new snow to bond well to these crusts. There is a thin layer of small-grained (~.5mm) near surface facets above the crust. This layer gets thicker (up to 5 mm thick) moving towards northeast, while the crust gets softer and thinner. Anything north of 45 degrees held dry, settled powder with minor surface faceting (~.3mm) and minimal sluffing.
Date of Observation: 03/29/2023
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Evans Basin on Mount Emmons and Kebler Pass/Ohio Pass corridor.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few small loose avalanches from warming today. Two loose avalanches triggered slabs on east aspects. One older avalanche likely failed during Monday’s storm that initially failed in storm snow and then stepped down two more feet; this avalanche snapped on small tree in the runout (D2.5).
Weather: Increasing clouds in the morning that were mostly cloudy in the afternoon. Temps reached close to 40 degrees below treeline. Light winds at low elevations, no snow transport was observed above treeline in the areas I traveled.
Snowpack: I took a look at the impact of yesterday’s and today’s warming on the snowpack on the south half of the compass. In general, I found crusts 1.5 – 3 cm thick (up to 1.25 inchs). I did not find liquid water draining into the snowpack much below the surface. Crusts on some steep sunny slopes might be supportive to skis tomorrow, but I suspect slightly breakable. I observed several snowbike tracks on steep sunny below treeline slopes that did not produce avalanche activity.
Date of Observation: 03/29/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Ruby Range, viewed from Mt. CB
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A couple of large cornice falls (Owen and Scarp Ridge), a handful of small wet loose on S-E aspects A/NTL, and a hot wind slab. These are new since I put binos on the same terrain yesterday around 11 a.m.
Weather: Clouds increased mid-day. Above freezing temps.
Date of Observation: 03/29/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Perry Creek, viewed from Mt. CB
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Destructive natural persistent slab, S-SE aspect above Perry Creek, ran to the ground shortly below start zone. Turner spotted this one fresh yesterday afternoon.
Date of Observation: 03/28/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Hunter Hill and Carbonate Hill
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Documenting avalanche activity from last week.
