Avalanches:
Weather: Few clouds, calm swirling winds near the top of RCG. Warm temps strong solar.
Snowpack: New snow has settled into a fast moving inch of warm snow. Stout 4-5cm MFcr provided mostly supportable skiing until 10,600′ from there on out the skiing was moist throughout the MFcr at 1300 hrs. No signs of instabilities throughout the tour. Moist grains 10cm below the MFcr @ 10,600′ dry below the crust @ 11,400′.

Avalanches: Observed one fresh windslab on an east aspect of Scarp Ridge, ATL, small in size. See photo. SS-N-R1-D1-U. We dropped a cornice on a S facing windloaded slope above treeline and got a small 6-8″ wind slab to pull out, which ran on a mid storm layer but gouged down to the VD crust further downslope. SS-AC-R1-D1-S
Weather: Few clouds. Moderate NW to W ridgetop winds with light transport; some stronger gusts. Warm temps.
Snowpack: Settled storm snow totals are 3-4″ along Scarp Ridge and Peeler Peak, and 2″ on Schuykill Ridge, with drifts up to 12″ thick from NW loading patterns, mostly ATL and some isolated NTL features. Snow appears to be bonding much better today to the Valentine’s Day crust; minor cracking in drifts but otherwise it was hard to get the new snow to budge. Winds kept surfaces cool at upper elevations, but we observed some small rollerballing in windsheltered southerly facing cirques N/ATL. Below treeline the new snow melded nicely into older crusts. No natural wet loose observed and we traveled on numerous southerly facing steep slopes up to 40 degrees in the afternoon with no instabilities. The VD crust remained solidly frozen and supportive through most of the day; it began to thaw late PM near bushes and rocks on S/SW aspects NTL. The northerly facing below treeline slopes that we traveled were entirely weak and faceted out, with no persistent slab structure. No signs of instability with the PS problem on various aspects and elevations.

Fresh windslab on Scarp Ridge, E aspect ATL

Avalanches:

Weather: Scattered morning skies with colder temps staying near or below freezing with light to moderate NW winds. Lots of plumes visible on the ridgetops especially midday.

Snowpack: Found good soft snow with 1-3″ of new blown in up to a foot deep at higher ridge top elevations. New snow not bonding well to old sun or wind crusts, but sticking to older dry snow. Still some lingering persistent slabs in some areas, but the snow is weakening and the slab is dissipating, especial ATL and BTL.
1 shallow windslab pocket produced a 10′ crack and 15′ downslope soft slab, but it was barely able to slide on firm wind pressed snow below. Hand shears on sunnier aspects show crust facet combos and no more moist or wet snow. 1 ECTP 11 SC in a fairly unrepresentative spot at the ridge line at 12,400 on a South facing slope failing on crust/facet combo.

Avalanches:
Weather: Mostly cloudy sky. Mostly light westerly winds at rigeline, with evidence of previously drifted snow.
Snowpack: New snow amounts in the 1-3″ range. Ski pen mostly about the same. No wind slabs found or an active persistent slab.

South east at 11,000ft in Coon glade had a 7cm VD (valentines day) crust with dry snow below. Same elevation on a more protected south facing slope in Coon Basin had a 15-30cm refrozen crust like thing with moist snow below, often to the ground.

East facing bowl ATL in Coon Basin has about 2-3″ new snow over wind effected snow surfaces.

Northeast facing NTL/BTL in Climax chutes was around 100cm HS with persistent slab structure but no obvious instabilities observed. Some 80% of that avalanche terrain, avalanched during the last natural cycle. Skier triggered one far running facet slough in an old bed surface, D1.

Avalanches: Skier triggered one fresh windslab up 18″ thick on a SE aspect above treeline (D1), and several very small pockets on west aspects near treelin (D1), running on storm interface.  SS-ASc-R1-D1-I
Weather: Overcast skies decreased to scattered by PM with direct solar. Moderate NW winds with light transport.
Snowpack: 9″ of new snow bonding poorly to the very stout crust buried yesterday. Drifting at upper elevations from NW winds. Green housing and PM solar caused low elevation, southerly aspects to moisten.

image3

Avalanches:
Weather: Sunny morning giving way to high clouds by noon. +2°C at 11 am near the top of Red Coon Glade. Increasing winds to strong by midday from the NW. Plumes and blowing snow off the peaks, but not much in the fetch to get transported.
Snowpack: Stout MF crust on SE slope softening by 10am. ATL most slopes are wind buffed and/or sun crusted. Red Lady Bowl left side (SW facing) had a 4″ suncrust with dry snow below. Wasn’t softening quite enough due to winds cooling the surface. NTL/BTL on North facing slopes still held dry snow and supportive pow. Anything rolling into the sun had a thin crust. Alpine slopes had stiff wind board from 4-8″ thick and 3-4 mm facets below. Shallower areas had all facets

Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack: Skied NNE slopes up to 34* with no collapsing or whompingor recent avalanche activity. Mostly faceted and weak snowpack, though some persistent slab structure. Several hand shears revealed difficult to pull off, but somewhat clean shears between 40 and 60 cms below the surface. One on suspected surface hoar, the others on surface facets. HS around 100-130 cms. Steeper slopes are close to posing a facet sluff problem.
Temps remained cool, with noted temperatures of -4 to -2 C. Moderate morning winds calmed through the day and were varied by the terrain. Periods of S1 snowfall with little accumulation.