Avalanches: See photo
Weather:
Snowpack:
baldyAvalanches: Nothing recent, except small loose wet on due south, rocky slope approx 14:30. Did not notice on sled in so assume it was new
Weather: Bluebird. Winds light in the am but increased in early pm, mostly out of the southwest. Minor snow transport
Snowpack: North facing slope below Schuylkill Peak. HS 240cm. Nonreactive to stability tests. Highly variable snow surface but textured surfaces skied fine.
Date: 02/12/2016
Second verse, same as the first. The sunny and clear weather continues today under high pressure parked over the Great Basin. The high pressure ridge flattens on Saturday, allowing several weak shortwaves to pass to our north over the weekend. This brings an increase in clouds on Saturday and the chance for light snowfall spreading south to our mountains by Sunday night. The ridge re-establishes next week.
High Temperature: 38
Wind Speed: 2-12
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0
Low Temperature: 20
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0
High Temperature: 35
Wind Speed: 10-20
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0
Avalanches: A new wet loose slide on SE slopes of Gothic Spoon rock band (D1), otherwise no signs of instability other than old crowns from previous storm cycle.
Weather: Warm temps, above freezing with moderate down valley (NW) winds keeping things cool. High temp of +6 in valley floor where sheltered from the wind.
Snowpack: Well settled snowpack with some sun crusts, wind crusts, wind stiffened and a little pow. Average HS 140cm. Moist snow in the valley on anything tipped to the south. NNE facing snow remained dry. Ski pen 6″ Boot pen a little more than a foot.
Avalanches: Large natural spanning most of M face (NNE aspect); large natural running the length of the ridgeline on skier’s right side of the bowl we skied (ENE aspect); large natural below tree line along skin ridge (E aspect) that is obvious from the highway, with debris piles in the exit gully. Lots of others, including some small but surprisingly low angle pockets, along Gibson Ridge.
Weather: Clear skies, moderate NW wind, temps near 0F at start warming into teens by mid-morning
Snowpack: North aspects wind scoured and punchy to rock hard. Some collapsing and cracking on 30+ degree north-facing slopes near treeline. Skied variable snow in the main east-facing bowl from the high point above M face. Lots of wind impact in the bowl; rock hard but smooth in skier’s left half to punchy sastrugi in the skier’s right half.
Date: 02/11/2016
A ridge of high pressure continues to dominate over the western US. Today will see high temperatures a couple degrees warmer then yesterday. We still have strong valley inversions with lows near or below zero, while higher elevations between 11 and 12,000ft low temperatures where in the 25-28 degree range this morning. The ridge of high pressure will flatten slightly this weekend as a shortwave trough passes to our north. The northern mountains are expected to get some snow but it’s looking like we’re too far south. We have some chance of seeing a few flakes around the Sunday time frame as a shortwave digs a bit further south. The Ridge of high pressure then reestablishes heading into next week.
High Temperature: 40
Wind Speed: 5 to 15
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Clear
Snow: 0
Low Temperature: 26
Wind Speed: 5 to 15
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Clear
Snow: 0
High Temperature: 42
Wind Speed: 5 to 15
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Clear
Snow: 0
Avalanches:Â See video. One fresh looking hard slab looked like it failed in the past few days due to cornice fall. HS-NC-R2-D2.5-O. Slab was pencil hard, up to 140 cm thick, averaging ~60 cm. Failed on 1mm rounding facets, 4F hard (I think Jan 14 facet layer), and stepped down to the ground in places, which was only another 30 cm deeper or so.
Observed several dozen additional undocumented persistent slabs from 2/1 cycle, on a variety of aspects and elevations, D2 to D2.5 in size. Most appeared to run mid-pack (Jan layers), but some went at the ground on depth hoar. Regardless, crown sizes were all pretty similar; there wasn’t much of a midpack between the January layers and early season depth hoar here.
About 5 small loose wet ran naturally either today or yesterday. S to W aspects NTL.
Weather: Light winds. few clouds, warm temps
Snowpack: Surface is a trashy mix of wind board, sastrugi, and meltfreeze crusts.
Got one small, soft collapse below treeline on a flat slope, and 5 or 6 loud collapses on a NW facing bowl N/ATL, radiating up to 40 feet with shooting cracks. These were on discontinuous slabs ~1-1.5 ft thick over depth hoar (3-4mm, fist hard) near a windscoured ridgeline, ~30 degree slope. Would expect the slab to become more continuous lower on the slope.
Didn’t get onto anything too steep and sunbaked, but water wasn’t moving beyond the top couple inches of the surface on 20-25 degree slopes with southwesterly tilts.
Crowns from 2/1 cycle. East face of Gothic.
Crowns from 2/1 cycle. SE aspects on White Mtn
Crowns from 2/1 cycle. S aspect on White Mtn
Crowns from 2/1 cycle. SW aspect on White Mtn.
Fresh looking crown on NE aspect above Perry Creek. Looks like it failed in the past 3 or 4 days. HS-NC-R2-D2.5-O.
Fresh looking crown on NE aspect above Perry Creek. Looks like it failed in the past 3 or 4 days. HS-NC-R2-D2.5-O.
Crowns from 2/1 cycle. W aspect above Perry Creek
Crowns from 2/1 cycle. W aspect above Perry Creek
Crowns from 2/1 cycle. NW aspect above Perry Creek
Multiple loud collapses and shooting cracks on a NW aspect N/ATL
Avalanches: Looks like a naturally triggered Avalanche of Redwell Basin. Â **CBAC note: first observed 2/4/16**
Weather: Sunny warm morning. Snow got nice and soft by 9am in the sun.
Snowpack:
Avalanches: very top of mt emmons, my 36 pound dog got too close to the edge of the cornice. a school bus sized chunk broke loose. nobody was caught or hurt and the dog is fine. sorry we broke yer cornice……
Weather: Sunny, warm
Snowpack: variable
