Avalanches: Heavy loose snow slides at the bottom of Snodgrass’s 2nd bowl gully. 8″ of non cohesive snow broke loose and slid frequently on the previous windload from the evening before. This was mid day and exposed to sun most of the morning causing some pretty rapid snow changes.
Weather:
Snowpack:

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Avalanches: observed a new D2 east facing, steep ~40* below main ridge (no cornice) snowmobile triggered? tracks at the base. Did not see it yesterday when I spotted these slides pictured below. Here’s shots from the day before & another ~D1.5 that was hard to see
Weather:
Snowpack: Numerous small to medium collapses on windward side of ridge above Indy Basin on low angle terrain

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Avalanches: Small (D1) wet loose avalanches ran on E, S, and W aspects, all elevations. These all originated from steep, rocky areas and didn’t run very far.
Weather:
Snowpack:

Avalanches:
Weather: Clear, calm, strong solar.
Snowpack: On most slopes not much for concerning structure. Either hot-pow over old snow surfaces that could have been pulled out as a loose wet avalanche on steep slopes, or a faceting soft slab on protected east aspects over old snow surfaces. Wind loading on the right slope over some of the weak old snow surfaces would have been key to find a more significant avalanche problem in this area. This snow surfaces will be crusty tomorrow morning before the next round of warming.

Avalanches: See photos of previous natural avalanche activity
Weather:
Snowpack:

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Avalanches: Triggered 2 persistent slabs today.
1 on the skiers right side of Coon Basin with a large cornice drop. D1 15m wide running about 200 vertical. Crown looked up to 30 cms deep.
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1 on a steep (38) roll on the North ridge of Emmons separating Coon and Redwell. Kind of a random spot. Heavily wind loaded, triggered on a ski cut. Surprisingly deep given the terrain. 75m wide running 200 vertical. Crown up to 70 cms deep. Pencil hard chunks of debris.
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Saw many more old crowns from Tuesday’s cycle including skiers right side of Red Lady, Pencil Chute, Wolverine, East side of Scarp Ridge, and others. From the Coon/RLB saddle there was slides to the NE and SW sides. Wind loading seemed confused and contradictory.
Weather: unny! Warm on the skin track but overall still below freezing temps. Light winds until the Alpine zone, then light ENE winds.
Snowpack: Ski Pen of 15 cms in what became hot pow on South slopes. Above treeline the snow stayed dry and was wind packed on the ridges. Zipper crust by afternoon on cooling S and SE slopes about 2 cms thick with dry snow below. Persistent slab structure obvious with the new snow (0-45 cms depending on wind transport) over buried NSF. Shady N-NE low angle slopes still holding cold snow which is faceting and even a bit slow moving.

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Avalanches: Large remote triggered D1.5 on SE aspect on a steep convex roll. Other avalanches were observed up slate river N-E.
Weather: It was as clear as a bluebird day can get with temps in the low to mid 30*F Wind Calm to light on the ridgeline out of the west.
Snowpack: Touchy!! Signs of instabilities started to be noticeable at 10,500ft with large loud whumpfing and collapsing. The overnight cold temp produced small SH growth in the valley and protected areas up to 11,000ft. The new snow has started to stiffen to 4F with area of wind board ranging from 2-5” thick HS ranged for 300-250cm. Testing the snowpack to check the old snows interface for NSH resulted in CTM19Q1 30cm down on NSH East 10,000ft. Other instabilities were large checking on the downhill sides of multiple trees. See Photos

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Avalanches: A group ahead of us remotely triggered 3 D1 soft slabs above a steep NE rollover below treeline, about a foot deep. Another rollover near treeline looked to be skier triggered today as well. All of these were 4F to F hard slabs over a very thin, faceted crust.
See photos of numerous previously unreported natural avalanches from around the zone that ran around 2/28. Some impressive propagation and long running slides, up to D2.5 in size.
Weather: Clear, light winds, cool temps.
Snowpack: The avalanches that failed today all held a common ingredient; enough easterly tilt to hold a very thin, faceted crust. On more northerly facing slopes lacking this crust, the buried near surface facet layer (35 cm deep) was unreactive in pits (ECTN19, BRK) and on ski cuts in steep terrain. We got several rolling collapses on low angle SE aspects NTL, but the collapses didn’t produce any avalanches in nearby start zones.

D1.5 – D2’s. Peeler Peak. NE aspect A/NTL

Several slides on Schuylkill Ridge ran to valley floor, D2.5 in size.

D2. S or SE aspect ATL, looking towards Paradise Divide.

Natural D1.5 below treeline, NE aspect of Schuylkill Ridge.

D2’s on E/NE aspects of Hancock Peak

D2, East aspect of Richmond Peak

Extensive avalanching on the west side of Schuylkill Ridge. Most paths ran with many widely propagating slides. D1.5 to D2.5, E and NE aspects.

D1.5 Climax Chutes. NE aspect NTL

D2 Purple Ridge. ENE aspect ATL.

ECTN19 on near surface facets, buried 35 cm deep. NNE aspect BTL.

Crown was up to a foot thick, failed on a very thin faceted crust.

One of 3 remotely triggered D1’s on NE aspects BTL. Triggered from above.

This appeared to be skier triggered today. NE aspect NTL, failed on a very thin, faceted crust

D2. North aspect ATL of Scarp Ridge.

D1-1.5’s in Redwell Basin, NE aspects ATL.

Avalanches: No signs of instabilities observed.
Weather: Clear, calm and cold. Temps increased steadily throughout the day, but north aspects stayed cold and dry.
Snowpack: Heavy sluffing on the steepest terrain. Upper 20 to 30 cm was NSF over a stiffer (probably wind hardened) layer. Quick column tests produced broken blocks – nothing clean.