Avalanches: No avalanches observed aside from one, 12″ deep, remotely triggered, east-facing steep rollover, BTL. Several large, booming collapses, both on uptrack and downtrack, shooting cracks near ridgeline with wind stiffened snow.
Weather: Mostly cloudy, broken skies down valley, moderate to heavy snowfall (S3) until around 1500 when skies rapidly cleared, accompanied by moderate to strong WSW wind, and intense snow transport observed at ridgeline. Temperatures between 28-30º all day.
Snowpack: Long day of breaking trail. New snow accumulation ~12″. Hard to ignore obvious upside-down snowpack structure, with heavy moist snow from this storm resting above colder, lighter density snow/ 1-2mm facets. Average snowpack depth ~70cm. Several large, booming collapses, seemed to propagate a few hundred yards. Cracking in denser, wind-stiffened snow. Moderate WNW winds were efficiently moving snow onto East-facing slopes near and above treeline. One extended column test on E facing slope, BTL, produced ECTP12 SC, 25cm above ground on 1-2mm near surface facets from cold spell.

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Avalanches: Small debris observed in Redwell Basin (D1), but otherwise, no vis of above treeline slopes. We had views of NE Schuylkill Ridge and SW Anthracite Mesa, and saw no avalanche activity.
Weather: Moderate SW ridgetop winds, with light snow transport. Pluming off of peaks. S-1 , brief periods of S2 (graupel). Mild temps, overcast skies.
Snowpack: 15 – 20 cm of new snow, mostly all cohesionless graupel, limited any storm slab concerns in wind protected areas. On NE aspects N/BTL, we broke trail and crossed a number of steep rollovers with minimal signs of instability: some minor cracking and one collapse. However, 3 out of 4 extended column tests produced moderate, propagating results, sudden collapse failures, on the Dec 6 near surface facet layer, which was below a 40 to 50 cm, 4F slab on wind sheltered slopes N/BTL. Same results on SW aspects near treeline, where the Dec 6 layer is a thin, friable crust above facets. See photos of profiles.

SW Aspect NTL

N aspect BTL

Avalanches:
Weather: Light snow and moderate wind continues. Snow density almost twice the average at about 11% water as there was 6 1/2′ new snow with 0.70″ of water. Snowpack at 23 1/2″. Currently obscured with light snow and moderate wind with gusts to 15. Temp. down to days lowest at 26F.
Snowpack:

Avalanches: none observed
Weather: cloudy, overcast, winds from south, no percipitation
Snowpack: compression test – CTE 8 (27cm) flat angle
extended column test – ECTN13 (27cm) suspect layer
Q1 – sudden planar

tests close to road – fresh snow

Avalanches: Moderate cracking and we intentionally skier triggered harmless, pockety wind slabs behind crossloaded trees and rollovers, up to 18″ thick and 10 feet wide.
Weather: Moderate SW winds, some plumes off of high peaks. S-1 began mid-afternoon, ramped to S2 around sunset. ~1″ so far. Warm temps.
Snowpack:

Avalanches: Looked like a 48hr’ish old windslab had pulled off of the south face of Mineral. Couldn’t see the crown in the flat light. R1-D1 in size.
Weather: Overcast sky. S-1 snowfall developing around 2:30pm. Generally light winds in the area but plumes were visible off the peaks.
Snowpack: Observed snowpack in the area didn’t have much to be concerned about. At 11,400ft, SSE aspect, 33 degree slope, HS 112, right-side up snowpack with no layers of concern. The 12/6 interface was down 27cm and mostly DFs. This slope would have started building a snowpack during the thanksgiving storm.

Avalanches: None observed.
Weather: Mostly cloudy, occasional light snow, no significant accumulation between 9am-1:30pm. Light WNW winds increased later into the afternoon. Temp was around 0*c. High westerly winds observed looking into the Ruby range above Owen and Purple.
Snowpack: Variable snowpack between ground and 78cm. Weak facets observed mid pack approx 50cm depth most of snowpack was 4F-1F small grained facets near ground. ECTP 16 which propagated @ 1-2mm near surface facets. Test was done on 28degree slope.

IMG_0935

Avalanches:
Weather: Overcast, winds out of the southwest on the ridge top. No wind int he valley bottom. Temp was a round ) degree C
Snowpack: It is a slaughter fest up there. Lots of good skier traffic in the main bowl and nearby slopes. Looked at the snowpack briefly. 70 cm mostly unconsolidated Fist but there was a 4F mid pack which was about 20 cm thick. We observed some consistent easy shears using a compression test at the old snow new snow interface and consistently on the ground. The ground was uneven plants but all facetted. All our columns released on the ground either while cutting or if we continued to tap after the first failure up high. It did not feel like a lot of strength in the snowpack. We saw no signs of instability while skiing although it did feel hollow sometimes.