Avalanches: No signs of instability observed.
Weather:
Snowpack: Toured north side of Snodgrass on Fri (12/2) and Sat (12/3) to check out snowpack prior to this weeks’ pending storm. HS varied from ~25cm up to ~65cm in protected areas on N / NE facing slopes.

Dug test pit at top of 1st Bowl on a protected 30* slope at 11K’ on 12/2. Structure was as follows:
HS: 65cm: 4cm of new snow; over ~41cm of 4F- .5mm rounded grains from late Nov storms; over 20 cm of F 1 – 1.5mm facets. ECTN 14, Q3 @ 20 cm facet layer.

Poor structure is there and found the facet layer down to ~10k’ on N facing slopes, but slab from late Nov storm showed limited consolidation / propagating potential except in the most wind-effected areas.

Avalanches: None
Weather: Broken skies, strong SW winds with moderate snow transport. Brief pulses of S-1 with trace accumulation
Snowpack: On W and SW aspects N/BTL, the snowpack is generally too incohesive or shallow for avalanche concerns. Slabs from last week’s storm are faceting away. Non-propagating results in ECT’s, no results from explosive testing or ski cuts. 1 cm melt-freeze crust on SW aspects, with .5 mm facets below. West aspects remained dry yesterday, and the surface is small grained facets or windpacked grains.

DSCN1140

Avalanches: See photos, Northerly aspects of Mt. Baldy
Weather:
Snowpack:

bros-1-of-1-7-01

bros-1-of-1-6-01

Avalanches: Two older natural windslabs off of purple ridge above treeline. Triggered two windslabs on east facing aspects from skin track on ridge by stomping on ridgeline convexities, ran aprox. 50 ft. Triggered longer running windslab by ski cut from highpoint of ridge on more north east facing aspect. Ran approx. 500ft from ridgetop to bench. Quickly dissipated into shallow sluff.
Weather: Calm, sunny. Intermittent light breeze. Cloud cover and breeze increasing by afternoon.
Snowpack: Uniform below treeline, ski pen 6-8 inches boot pen 16-20 inches. Isolated shallow/soft windslabs above treeline.

Avalanches: See photos. Evidence of widespread natural avalanche cycle in Peeler and Oh-Be-Joyful Basin from 11/27-11/28 storm, on northerly aspects N/ATL, small to large in size.. Faint crownlines and debris on Scarp Ridge, Purple Peak, and a lot of north facing terrain that we got views of. ~15 x SS-N-R1/2-D1/2-O/G
On a NW aspect ATL, we remotely triggered a persistent slab that failed at the ground on 3mm depth hoar. The crown was 2-3 ft deep, up to 1F hard, ~300 ft wide. Triggered from ~800 feet away on low angle, NE facing terrain. SS-ASr-R1-D2-O/G
We also skier triggered one small windslab on a crossloaded NW aspect ATL, less than a foot thick. SS-AS-R1-D1-U.
Multiple small sluffs observed on various aspects from the recent snowfall, all harmless.
Weather: Clear skies increased to scattered clouds. Light to moderate westerly winds with occasional light snow transport. from ridgetops.
Snowpack: On E and SE aspects ATL: One test pit and numerous hand pits showed a ~60-80 cm slab (typically 4F) over .5-1 mm rounding facets, typically 4F- or F+. Two ECT’S showed non propagating results (ECTN H Brk and ECTN M PC). We traveled on several slopes up to 45 degrees with no signs of instability. There is a new meltfreeze , ~1cm thick, forming on the surface of S to SE aspects, with small faceting below.
On NW to N aspects N/ATL: We experienced 4 booming collapses, with shooting cracks radiating up to 1,000 feet away. Quite alarming! Structure consisted of 50 cm to 80 cm 4F to 1F slabs over 4F small grained facets over 3mm fist hard depth hoar. It appears that more than half of avalanche terrain had flushed naturally during 11/27-11/28 storm, so the snowpack structure will be quite variable from slope to slope now. Snow surfaces consist of DF grains, windpacked grains, and small facets (less than .5mm)
Some minor, shallow cracking on all aspects ATL isolated to ridgeline windloaded locations.

Remote triggered slide today. NW aspect ATL

Profile dug near the avalanche trigger location.

Shooting cracks up to 1000 feet away from trigger location.

NW aspect ATL

Shooting cracks from trigger location.

NW aspect NTL

Old crown. N aspect ATL

Old crown. N aspect NTL

Old crown. NW aspect NTL

Old crown. N aspect NTL

Old crown. NW aspect NTL

NW aspect NTL

Old crown. ENE aspect Scarp Ridge

E aspect ATL

Old crown. NE aspect, Scarp Ridge

Avalanches:
Weather: Obscured and overcast sky. Snowfall rates were mostly in the S-1 to S1 range, but rates picked up for an hour here and there to around S2. Calm winds with no new drifting snow observed.
Snowpack: In general, the Thanksgiving Storm and following large storm around 11/26 were creating a nice looking homogeneous snowpack. Any layers of concern or potential layers of concern were near the ground, having formed during the shallow or non-existent snowpack before Thanksgiving. No obvious signs to instability while traveling through east to south to southwest facing slopes. Ski Pen around 25cm.

Dipped into the top of one north facing slope at 11,200ft. Nothing new, HS 130, progressively harder snowpack with depth (F to 4F+) over about 18cm of dry, large facets. The ground cover at the base of the snow pit wasn’t perfectly planner and had some variation in depth due to rock outcrops. Though thats probably representative of the ground cover across the terrain. ECTP 22 SC, ECTN.

East facing 34 degree slope at 11,200ft. HS 140. Same structure as above with the basal facet layer at about 10cm thick, 4F- hard, and both smaller and moist then on the north facing observation.