Date of Observation: 01/31/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch Road to southern end of Mount Baldy.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several natural avalanches were observed on drifted terrain in the Ruby Range. Slabs did not break deeply and appeared to just involve the snowfall since 1/27. See images.
Weather: Clear skies and light winds at upper elevations. No snow transport was observed during the day.
Snowpack: Below treeline, there was around a 15-inch soft slab from the recent snowy weather since 1/27. Near treeline on drifted terrain, slabs were closer to 2 feet + with hardness commonly 4 finger with isolated, well-drifted features up to 1 finger. Test profiles produced moderate and hard propagating results at the storm interface since 1/27. Both locations were previously drifted and failed above the drifting from last week (1/23 – 1/25). Light faceting was common above and below the older wind drifts from a week ago. I did not find a melt/freeze crust on due south slopes above 10,800 feet at the storm interface. Snow surfaces on southerly slopes became moist in the afternoon from solar radiation.

Date of Observation: 01/31/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Mt. CB

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: See photos and details below. D1 to D2 storm slab avalanches on various peaks near town that ran during yesterday’s storm.

Date of Observation: 01/31/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Rec tour on Schuylkill Ridge, northeasterly aspects to 11,400′

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: 3 large slab avalanches (D2) in the Great Wide Open that ran late yesterday or last night, about 2-3 feet thick from just below the windloaded ridgeline. 2 other large slab avalanches ran before the last round of snow, I’m guessing during Sunday night’s wind event. Both of those crossed the bench. The slide on Yogi’s covered the existing skin track with ~6 ft of debris.  Plus a number of other slab avalanches D1 to D1.5 at all elevations that ran during the storm, and evidence of other activity in the alpine that is drifted over again. See photos.
Weather: Clear, cold, calm winds.
Snowpack: In wind-sheltered terrain, undercutting steep slopes and skinning abov produced cracks up to 5′ long, about 16″ deep on the storm interface. Otherwise, no signs of instability; ski cut a few steeper rollovers without results.

Date of Observation: 01/31/2023
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic townsite

Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Obscured clouds cover with light snow all day Monday accompanied by strong afternoon wind and blizzard conditions which finally let up at sunset. New snow total of 6½” with 0.45″ of water and the snowpack sits at 62½” under a (this is not a misprint) clear sky. Cooling after it cleared with the low the current -1F, with a light SW breeze.

Date of Observation: 01/30/2023

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: A few laps on the North-Easterly lines of Snodgrass, accessed via Gothic Road skin track

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: All localized sluffs and small crowns, confined to storm snow-old snow interfaces only on the steepest of rollovers
Weather: Snowing hard all day, temps were pretty cold outside of denser stands of trees; the sun came through the clouds for about an hour midday; often still/subtly breezy, but there were frequent gusts around 25 mph throughout the day.
Snowpack: Pit @ ~9900 ft, NE aspect, 28* slope angle

Snow height at pit 155 cm

ECTN 7 @ 135 cm, storm snow-old snow interface, and with progressive loading to 30, ECT X. Moderately aggressive prying resulted in a non-planar break at 95 cm on what appeared to be an old sun crust that had just started to decompose before it was buried.

The top meter of snow ramped up in hardness from F for the top 20 cm to 4F for roughly another 30 cm to 1F for the remaining 50 cm, with no obvious weak layers detected.

Date of Observation: 01/30/2023
Name: Irwin Guides

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Irwin Tenure

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: SS-ASc-R1-D1-I 35cm X 100′ X 80′ EBM below Bender cliff band. Numerous small storm slabs 6-12″ thick E/W aspects NTL.
Weather: Today started out windy to say the least with SW winds in the 40’s for a six hour run and gusts in the 70’s. Mid day things tapered off a bit as winds shifted to the W. Snowed S-1 until this afternoon, snowing S3 at times.
Snowpack: NTL/ATL W was getting scoured until the later part of the day. Significant loading on E. Storm slab became more reactive to AS as the day progressed. Only traveled E in the AM as visibility allowed observed significant loading and wind wales below cliff bands.

Date of Observation: 01/30/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Mt Axtell, mostly below treeline, poked into ridgeline near treeline terrain too.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Some small sluffing and micro slabs with ski cuts BTL
Weather: Light to moderate snowfall rates this morning, with a few inches on the skin track and a few more by midday. Moderate winds with significant previous and ongoing transport as we got into more wind exposed terrain.
Snowpack: Below treeline: very soft slab (12”, F) on a soft lightly faceted interface, not much propagation; ski cuts would crumple small slabs and behave more like sluffs.
Near treeline in wind exposed terrain (Wang Chung and 4th Bowl) there were obvious drifts; flat light and the high consequence terrain here made it difficult to get any feedback.

Date of Observation: 01/29/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Union Chutes area, up to 11,500′.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: No recent natural activity that I could see in this area.
Weather: Mild day, with no snow and light wind where we were, but I could see ongoing snow transport on Whetstone and Gothic Peak.
Snowpack: The mid-January near surface facet layer (the storm interface) is about 8″ to 12″ deep in sheltered terrain below treeline and 16″ to 24″ deep in leeward terrain near treeline. It produced cracking on the few steeper slopes that we ski cut; but felt more stubborn than what I saw yesterday. ECTs produced moderate propagating results on this layer on a drifted slope NTL, as well as hard propagating results on faceted snow near the ground. Because of large cornices guarding leeward features, and wind slabs too thick and stiff here for comfortable ski cuts, I didn’t seek out feedback in the most suspect terrain. HS is 105 near the creek and variable near ridgetop because of winds; 135 cm where we measured.

Date of Observation: 01/29/2023
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Townsite

Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Saturday snow was very dense and windblown, then a pause overnight with light density snow starting back towards sunrise so it sort of averages out at 3″ new and 0.25″ of water. Strong afternoon winds on Saturday slowing up around 9 p.m. Currently overcast with very light snowfall and a light SW breeze while the snowpack sits at 58″, which is 24% above average for this date. Temperature is a small range after a high of 21F and low of 12F. billy

Date of Observation: 01/28/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Schuylkill Ridge, northeasterly aspects to 11,400′

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous skier and rider triggered storm slabs from D1 to D1.5, depending on the length and steepness of the terrain. There were also a few naturals that ran earlier in the storm, probably yesterday.
Weather: Light snowfall in the morning, light graupel in the afternoon. Moderate winds with moderate transport at ridgetop.
Snowpack: About 15″ of low density storm snow (F). Reactive storm slabs on terrain features steeper than about 37 degrees. The crowns that I looked at failed within the storm snow on low-density stellar dendrites that fell yesterday, although there is also a small-grained near surface facet layer at the storm interface. No significant drifting where we traveled except just below ridgeline, where slabs were a bit thicker and stiffer, up to 18″, 4F.