Date of Observation: 02/08/2023
Name: Tad Barnes
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Red Lady Bowl, Standard approach
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: D1- Redwell scarp ridge side
D1- Lookers right of Red Lady bowl gulley
Weather: OVC
Snowpack: Wind crusty in spots. 3 in wind slabs above treeline by skin track that were reactive to skier weight.
Date of Observation: 02/08/2023
Name: Zach Kinler and Evan Ross
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Cement Creek trailhead up the looker’s left ridge of Horse Basin to Cement Mountain.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Spotted 1 large persistent slab avalanche in the upper Hunter Creek drainage on a South aspect above treeline, likely running in the last 24 hours. This slope has a very large fetch and has been loading during our recent NW winds.
Weather: Overall a fairly cold day with intermittent clouds and sun. Winds were generally light but moderate gusts began around 1:00 pm.
Snowpack: No signs of instability underfoot from valley bottom to the ridgeline and on a few drifted slopes near treeline while skinning and stomping. Snowpack depths ranged from 70cm at the lowest elevations to 130 cm at 11,700. The slab below treeline is mostly faceted with just enough support to hold up the boots. Above 11,000′ the midpack has a bit of 1 finger slab with the upper 60cm faceted. The early season weak layer at the bottom of the snowpack is 4 fingers and rounding. A profile on a slightly drifted east aspect at 11,700′ produced no results twice and failed on the isolation of the column once. The latter result was a bit surprising, not something I would expect to find across the majority of the terrain.
Date of Observation: 02/07/2023
Name: Mark Robbins
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: anthracites
Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: cold in the shade, hot in the sun. Calm winds
Snowpack: Enjoyed southerly skiing in the morning, sunday night’s storm snow had settled but not yet gone thermal on a crust that was supportive to skis but not to poles. By the afternoon the sun had done its thing to the new southerly snow. First skin glopping of the winter.
Evidence of the wind event really just at ridgelines, north facing snow from sunday night was as yet undisturbed and cold.
Date of Observation: 02/07/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Daisy Pass to Hancock Peak to 12,400′, traveled mostly on NE and SW aspects.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A handful of small loose avalanches ran on steep southwest aspects as the snow surface got moist, and we triggered some small sluffs as well. Spotted one natural soft slab (D1) that ran from a drifted near treeline slope during the recent storm.
Weather: Clear skies, calm winds.
Snowpack: Went hunting for feedback on the wind slab problem and couldn’t really find any, apart from minor cracking below an alpine ridge. Evidence of wind effect and previous wind transport in the recent snow was less than expected. The strong pre-storm southwest winds late on Sunday formed wind crusts and wind board across most terrain before the snow fell, which appears to have effectively destroyed the faceted storm interface. Ski cuts on suspect terrain were unproductive. There’s about 5″ to 8″ of soft, settled powder on northerly aspects available for transport if northerly winds increase tomorrow.
Date of Observation: 02/07/2023
Name: Josh Jones
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Schuylkill Ridge NE
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Saw and triggered a few small loose sluffs on steep rollovers.
Snowpack: Probed at 10400 on a NE sheltered aspect, 175 CM.
Date of Observation: 02/06/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Mount Emmons to 11,800′ on SE, E, and NE aspects.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Unintentionally ski triggered a small wind slab, about 10″ thick. I was hunting for wind slabs below a leeward ridgeline with unproductive ski cuts, but further down the slope than expected, a small pocket popped while I was skiing. Some folks at the trailhead reported triggering shallow soft slabs in Elk Creek area as well.
Weather: Cold, partly cloudy, a few brief flurries, and light to moderate northwest winds lightly drifting snow on ridgelines.
Snowpack: About 3″ to 4″ of new snow had been redistributed by southwest winds near and above treeline, with a bit of drifting shifting to northwest today. HS ranged from 180 to 210 cm near treeline where I probed. Also checked out a wind protected, northeast facing path that avalanched to near the ground in January. There, the snowpack was unusually shallow (HS 60 to 80cm in a few handpits), but the persistent slab structure appeared to be lacking the slab (snowfall after the avy has subsequently faceted), the original basal weak layer, or both. The most recent slab-forming event (late Jan) was unreactive in stability tests and while skiing steep terrain up to 40 degrees.
Date of Observation: 02/05/2023
Name: Chris Read
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Brush Creek to Friends Hut
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: 2 wet slides on Death Pass. Occurred sometime between 9:45 and 3:30.
Weather: Sunny, warm, windy
Snowpack: Sun effected, wet
Date of Observation: 02/06/2023
Name: Billy Barr
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic townsite obs
Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Snow started near midnight and continued generally light until around 5 a.m. with 3½” new and water of 0.30″. Snowfall was moderate density but wind driven so the measured amount is dense. Currently cloudy, windy and mild with the low 15F after a high yesterday of 43F. billy
Date of Observation: 02/05/2023
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate TH to Poverty Gulch on sled. Tour into upper Poverty Gulch between Augusta and Purple
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A couple of loose avalanches from steep sunny features from recent days, small size.
Weather: Thin, high cloud cover turned into partly cloudy skies as the cloud deck lowered. Obvious increase in wind speeds in the PM. Blowing snow was frequent at the highest elevations during the afternoon, but actual loading and thin slab formation looked pretty isolated.
Snowpack: Toured around easterly aspects from 9,800 to 12,200 feet. Snowpack test on drifted alpine slope produced no results. Surfaces near and above treeline remain dry on west through north through east aspects or in the warmest shoulder aspect locations… fragile, soft crusts. The south half of the compass developed crusts 2 – 3 cm thick on steep slopes. The exception to this was sunny terrain with dry fetches nearby…these start zones had two thinner melt/freeze crusts from warming and drifting over recent days (like the test profile in photos). Slope scale sunnies at all elevations no longer seem as concerning for avalanches to break at the old storm interface now that crusts will remain frozen and presumably buried by the incoming storm.
We observed numerous aggressive ski/snowboard lines on north through east through south slopes over the past few days in this area without incident.
The Fireside Chat is back on Thursday, February 9th with Dr. Jeff Deems. Jeff is the Co-Founder, CTO, and Formulation Lead for Airborne Snow Observatories, Inc as well as a scientist at the CIRES National Snow and Ice Data Center. He explores spatial variability in mountain snowpacks using lidar remote sensing, physical modeling, field measurements, and of course, climbing skins and skis. He has spent many hours flying over and touring the snowpack of the Upper Gunnison Valley in an effort to understand the nature of mountain snowpacks. In this Fireside Chat, we will look at using Airborne Snow Observatories data to get accurate inventories of basin snowpacks and explore some emerging best practices for using digital mapping tools to navigate avalanche terrain and risk. We will be at Tully’s in CB South, starting at 7:00 pm but feel free to show up early to grab a drink, some delicious food, and catch up with your buddies.
