Date of Observation: 03/12/2023
Name: Cosmo Langsfeld

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Grassy Hill

Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Overcast. Started snowing in earnest around 1pm.
Snowpack: A few quiet whoomfs on west/southwestish meadows around 10500-11k. Didnt see any shooting cracks or feel anything collapse. Just whoomfs.

Date of Observation: 03/12/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Mt Emmons. 9,000 to 10,200. W-NE-E. BTL

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: 3 to 4 D2’s in the Climax Chutes and a few smaller avalanches. These all likely ran early Saturday morning. Couldn’t see any crowns in the start zones, so assuming they were storm slabs that entrained snow.

A couple of small point releases today on various aspects.

Weather: Mostly cloudy. Calm wind. Up to 2″ of new snow in the afternoon.

Snowpack: We didn’t find any signs of instability on this lower-elevation tour. Lots of settlement from yesterday, and yesterday’s crust that formed around most of the compass, appeared to have killed the storm slab problem in this location. A couple of small point-release avalanches that ran today in the climax chutes, and on a NE-facing slope at 10,400ft didn’t propagate in the storm snow. We did 1 ECT test at 9,600ft, NE aspect, 35-degree slope, and got ECTN results in the storm snow and at the old snow interface.

HST on yesterday’s crust was 4″ down low and 6″ at 10,200ft.

We ran into the Gunsight Moose on the descent. The Moose was hanging out on GB loop.

Date of Observation: 03/12/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Traveled on various aspects of Cement Creek and Reno Ridge to 11,200′, as far up valley as Block and Tackle Trail.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: The most notable avalanche in Cement Creek was the previously reported large slide that crossed the road between Warm Springs and Deadmans Saturday morning during the storm. This appeared to be a wind-drifted storm slab that entrained a large amount of snow (see photo); the main lobe of debris was about 10 feet deep and stopped just short of the road, with some debris washing across the road to the creek. I saw one other D1 storm slab below treeline and evidence of moving snow on steep roadcuts from the storm. Visibility of above treeline terrain was limited. No new avalanches today.
Weather: Mostly cloudy, with intermittent periods of moderate snowfall. About 3″ of new snow overnight and today. Light winds and no blowing snow.
Snowpack: No signs of instability while snowmobiling and skiing on numerous steep slopes. I was able to produce some localized cracking about a foot deep on a drifted slope after undercutting the feature first. Storm totals are 18″ to 24″ deep, fist to fist+ hard; stiffer and more upside-down on drifted features.
I was hunting for signs of persistent slab issues on shallower slopes and did not get any collapses or unstable results. On a WNW facing terrain feature, I found a structure that would be concerning with additional slab consolidation and snowfall: it was a 60 cm fist hard soft slab over 2mm, fist hard facets, ECTX results (slab crumbled).

Date of Observation: 03/12/2023
Name: Turner Petersen

Zone: South of CBAC forecast zone
Route Description: Seen from 135

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Impressive out-of-the-ordinary naturals around Almont as seen with the other observation posted. This one is in the east-facing foothills below Flat Top mountain outside the fish hatchery.
Weather: Snowing, sunny, wet, warm.
Snowpack: Deep for this area.

Date of Observation: 03/11/2023
Name: Irwin Guides Cat-Ski

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Irwin Guides cat-ski tenure

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Avalanche observations: HST responsive to AE, unresponsive to AS
Long HS-AE-R1-D1.5-I DF (30cm x 10m x 135m)
Way Long HS-AE-R1-D2-I MF (30cm x 20m x 135m)
Thorton’s HS-AE-R1-D1.5-I MF (50cm x 20m x 115m)
Bender HS-AE-R1-D1.5-S DF (15cm x 10m x 125m)
Flaming Ferrari HS-AE-R1-D1-S DF (20cm x 5m x 50m)
Weather: “We are currently HST: 28/3.2″ with more snow in the forecast. We also cracked a 100″ base today, which is nice.

The latest round of precip came with an extreme SW wind event, which is less nice. Last night we registered 5 hours of wind gusts from 35-48 at our base area study plot at 10.4k.”
Snowpack: This wind event combined with a warming trend during the storm produced widespread hardness inversions that were responsive to AE, but not to AS. A most uninspiring structure.

Date of Observation: 03/11/2023
Name: Insta Gram

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Kebler Pass Road obs

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: “Counted 7+ D1.5’s along Kebler corridor this morning between TH and Axtel skintrack – All on the South facing road cuts”
Weather:
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 03/11/2023
Name: Insta Gram

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Natural avalanche impacting Cement Creek Road/xc trail

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: “Hard to tell, but the big path in the heart of Cement Creek XC trail ran last night…looked like it wasn’t even from the very top from what I could see.”
Weather:
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 03/11/2023
Name: Ben Ammon

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Epicing our way out way out from Friends Hut after coming over Pearl. Skintrack to Friends is in.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: -4 of the THC chutes all ran full path probably early morning 3/11. The largest (#4) crossed East Brush Creek and made it to about where the normal route to Friends is. All started as storm slabs up high and then stepped down into persistent layers mid track, typically near the cliff bands. First 4 photos.
-The slope above the West Brush creek crossing buried the road and almost made it to the creek. 5th photo
-Storm slab crossed Brush Creek in the steep terrain between Hunt Camp and the West Brush crossing. 6th and 7th photo
-North Bowl of Cement slid, looked big from a long ways away. Last photo
-Many other D1 storm slabs, mostly E aspects, but some on every aspect, all seemed to fail early AM and were partially filled back in.
Weather: Clearing and sun mid day, but clouds and light snow moved back in after 1pm. Winds were generally light with occasional moderate guests BTL.
Snowpack: Settled storm total at Friends Hut as of 9am 3/11 was 29 inches of way upside down snow. Likely a fair bit of settlement as there was ~18 inches of 3-4% by dark on 3/10. Holy deepness. Collapsed the storm slabs problem on just about every meadow in the East Brush valley. We avoided Death Pass but I’d bet it slid as well.

Date of Observation: 03/11/2023
Name: Text Message Obsevation

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: This area sits outside the CBAC forecast area just north of Almost above highway 135 (forecaster description)

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Natural avalanche north of Almont on a northeast-facing slope, around 8,400 feet.
Weather:
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 03/11/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Lower Anthracite Mesa from Washington Gulch Trailhead.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few natural storm slab avalanches on east and northeast aspects, D1 – D1.5. Intentionally skier triggered a moist Loose avalanche on a southeast slope below treeline.
Weather: Mostly cloudy skies, about 20 inches of storm snow, light to moderate winds, and mild air temps. Just afternoon there was a period of ‘green housing’ from the sun poking through thin clouds that quickly warmed, settled, and wet snow surfaces on the south half of the compass.
Snowpack: While moving through northeast, east, and southeast aspects below treeline we experienced few signs of instability outside of the natural Storm Slabs that ran during a period of intense snowfall earlier in the morning. On east-facing terrain, we produced a few muffled collapses during a period of strong ‘green-housing’ while surfaces were moist (nearly wet). If I skinned above my partner’s skin track, I was able to produce some ski-length cracks above the established skin track. Test results on an east slope produced an ECTP 28 +1 result and ECTN within the storm snow (see photo). While traveling over a southeast slope, the storm snow had settled and moistened/wetted to a dense, manky 10 inches ( see photo).