Avalanches: handful of natural D1-1.5 wet loose initiating in steep and extreme terrain on SE-SW facing terrain all elevations in Ruby Range. Other southerly slopes appeared well behaved with little moving snow. DId observe wet slab/mud slide adjectnt to Kebler Pass road this evening (photos)
Weather: Warm, very light westerly winds in afternoon. Clear, with strong radiation. no wind transport observed.
Snowpack: Snow surfaces warmed on all but high northwest-north facing terrain near and above treeline. All other aspects moistened and become wet in afternoon to 20cm deep. Surfaces started to re-freeze 5pm in shade. did not dig for lingering PS structure, but did ski steep northerlies, cautiously. Around 1730 surfaces in shade began to re-freeze, but felt wet grained snow extended 30cm deep, losing cohesion late in day.

D1.5 wet loose Afley lower right corner

Schuykill Peak D1 Wet lOose

Wet slab/mud slide Kebler Pass

IMG_2440

Avalanches: no signs of instability, though, did feel a random, unlikely, dense chunk of windslab from 2/28 could be pried out on a crash, hard ski, or sidehilling.
Weather: clear, scattered high cirrus at sunrise. Light west winds. Solid freeze, temps in teens
Snowpack: Solid freeze overnight. snow surfaces on terrain skied (steep, north-northeasterly) mix of dry, faceted surface snow, rock hard windboard and frozen melt/freeze crusts at lower northerly elevations. no significant wind transport observed.

IMG_2384

Avalanches:
Weather: Clear sky, light winds at ridgeline.
Snowpack: Around 12000ft only the upper 3″ was moist at 1pm. Sitting over firmer crusty snow below in one hand pit. 40+ degree slopes may have produced small wet loose. Below 11,500ft’ish the upper snowpack had made the full spring transition and was staying firm under the wet snow. The last southeasterly pitch around 9800ft was becoming unsupportive to skis at 2pm and probably would have been fully unsupportive to boots.
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Avalanches:
Weather: Clear skys in the morning became overcast by 9am. Those clouds started thinning around 1pm. Strong northwesterly wind gusts at ridgeline.
Snowpack: Southerly aspects mostly stayed locked up. Below 12,000 feet the snow surface softened in the afternoon. Above 13,000ft the surface crusts where supportive but only about 5cm’s thick and capping faceted snow or layers of crust facets below. Yesterdays snow was blow in up to an 1″ in spots. No avalanche concerned observed.

Avalanches: Small wet slab on SE aspect.
Weather: Overcast, light winds out of the NW with periods of light snowfall in the AM. Overcast with a strong solar greenhouse affect, Light to moderate winds out of NW in the PM. Temps ranged in the high 30F.
Snowpack: whomping and collapsing were felt BTL but no moment was seen. A few hand sheers revealed a crust grauple layer with inconsistent sheer qualities 4F near the interface. HS was around 200cm with surface snow warming and producing roller balls and hot powder on NE aspects. SW aspect received a fair bit of solar gain as well even with overcast ski and wind with surfaced became great corn skiing. No other instability where observed.

Avalanches:
Weather: A mix of clear skies to overcast S1
Snowpack: Mixed bag out there with a snow pack that wants to turn to spring but the weather just won’t let it.
!st day tour 3 /11, into Virginia basin, warming temps and according to Billy ( the gothic legend ) temps went to 52 f at almost a record, with a pit dug on a West aspect at 1080 ft. CTM 14 SP Q1 down 40cm was our main concern. Its out there! ECT test did not produce any results, ECTX .
Skied the south shot into Copper Ck and dug another pit on a S aspect at 10,000ft no results from either a CT to ECT. No other activity seen from the days outing. Moist snow on the S other aspects and the corn harvest had begun.
3/12 .Put a halt to the corn harvest. Tour day we decided to squeeze out the last of the Snodgrass powder. dug a pit at 10,700 on a NE aspect CTH21, ECTN21 40cm down.
There seems to be a problem child that is being spanked into submission, its out there but harder to get results.

We were in full tradition mode the last couple of days and it didn’t quite go all the way in the Gothic zone.

Avalanches:
Weather: On and off very light snowfall through the mid day. A dusting at best. Light winds in this area. Overcast sky.
Snowpack: North bowl on Carbon had more wind effect then expected. Lots of wind board and scoured areas. The steeper north facing slopes were either wind textured or soft recycled type pow. No obvious sings to instability. Avoided one slope. When the snow was soft, ski pen was about 5-10cm.

At 10,800ft on a 35 degree slope, CTM SP and ECTN15. 35cm decomposing slab over old faceted snow.

At 11,400ft on a 36 degree slope. ECTP 14 and ECTP 22. Both down 45cm on well preserved 1mm NSF. F to 1F decomposing slab as seen in attached picture. Avoided the main steeper slope.

Carbon