Avalanches:
Weather: Overcast skies with a short period of high thin clouds and strong solar radiation, Light winds from SW, no Blowing Snow, Air Temp ~ 20*F, short period of S2 with 5cm total accumulation of rimed new snow.
Snowpack: Observed no new avalanches, cracking or collapsing. The 20cm of storm snow since Thursday was F hard and its bond to the old snow surface varied with aspect: poorly bonded to 5mm SH above a 2cm thick 1F hard crust on S aspects, well-bonded to the crust on W aspects (found no SH here), and semi-well-bonded to 3mm SH on a N aspect ~9500′.

A profile on a S aspect at 9,200′ with HS 150cm and PF 20cm revealed a 20cm thick, poorly-bonded soft slab of F hard storm snow over 5mm SH overlying a 2cm thick, 1F hard layer at the old snow interface (CTE SC, ECTP5). Compression tests showed Moderate SC results on 2 more interfaces, one just below the crust on a layer of 1mm FC and another down 34cm from surface. Neither of these interfaces showed a propensity for propagation in ECTs (both ECTN 15 and ECTN 17). We found 3 more buried crusts, but snowpack tests produced no alarming results on these or the 4F hard, 2mm moist basal facets.

Compression tests on the W and N aspects produced no sudden results.

The snow surface quickly warmed and formed a soft (4F hard), 2cm thick crust on S aspects that was quickly covered by an additional 5cm of new snow by 2pm.

Avalanches: No instabilities.
Weather: Broken skies and calm before 130PM
Snowpack: Less than 2 inches new snow/24 hours

Avalanches:
Weather: What happened to the storm, bummer. Snow showers on and off adding up to a few inches through the day. No wind down low and poor visibility of higher terrain. Thin clouds allowed for green housing on southerly slopes.
Snowpack: Traveled on below treeline terrain up to 11,000ft. The 1/19 surface hoar was both difficult to identify in pit walls and spatially variable. Surprisingly in one location at 11,000ft on a northerly slopes it wasn’t there. Test results where within the storm. 10,500ft northeasterly aspect the SH was small and difficult to identity. 40cm of recent storm snow was still very soft and had little cohesion. Southwest at 10,000ft the SH was about 2mm tall on top of a 1cm crust. Storm snow above was about 40cm and F+ hard with green housing helping with settlement. Snowmobile and ski tracks on good test slops looked to have no results or cracking.

Avalanches: SS-R3-D1.5/2? (poor visibility) W facing, 9,600ft, ~270ft wide opposite the R.L. skin track in gulley feature, anything steep ~40* had a distinct crown with ~10cm refill

SS-R1-D1.5/D2 (poor vis)~150ft wide E facing ~@ 11,300 E facing just right to skin trick ~38-40* ~10cm refill~ unknown amount of debris below in forest, still a good amount of “slumped” snow on the bed surface.

and a few small D1 pockets on Kebler road
Weather: S1-S2
West light to Mod
Snowpack: exposed areas 20-30cm drifts in skin track in short period of time
fresh cornice development

easy shears under HST ~30-35cm in FC/SH layer on crust. besides the 2 avalanches, , no propagation seen underfoot.

Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack: HS averaged well over 2m. Sank 3m probe w/out hitting bottom anywhere near treeline w/ any prior loading. Shallow spots on ridges were as little as 120cm, w/ 180cm avg.

Field avg HST was 25cm @ 11,500; a bit less (~20cm) @ valley floor, and lightly redistributed above treeline, with fresh drifts up to 50cm, but still Fist hard.

The Jan 19 SH layer was very touchy on everything but due south below treeline, just no slab above it yet anywhere on our tour today. Wind loading was re-filling our skin track each lap, but still no slabbing, yet. On SE, also found a nasty crust facet combo topped w/ SH. Minor cracking observed on SE aspect near TL where HST sat on a thin crust. Cracks were going to just below the crust, breaking on the size 1mm facets below the crust on steep rolls, tilt tests and hand tests.

Today, Loose Dry was the only problem, and only over 40 degrees. Looking into the future, with more load, the Cement Creek area could have a small avalanche cycle on most aspects on the Jan 19 SH and crust/facet combos by Monday if the forecast verifies.

Avalanches:
Weather: Bad weather returns with generally moderate, steady overnight snow though light density with 5″ new and water 0.23″ (though this may be a bit short as I will not measure until 7 and the instrumentation may be an hour behind on uploading data). Snowpack at 81½”. No wind. No visibility.
Snowpack:

Avalanches: surface sluffing only on steeper pitches caused by tree bombs and from skiing, some “creep” as well on rollers but no propagation.
Weather: Snowing 2-3 inches an hour, zero wind.
Snowpack: Breaking trail through 24 inches of snow of estimated four-percent density. Five inches of new on skintrack after one lap.

Avalanches: None. A few pinwheels off the skin track after the sun made its brief appearance.
Weather: S-1 transitioning to mostly cloudy. Calm.
Snowpack: Up to 6 inches of new snow/24 hours on a sun crust.