Weather: strong gusting winds out of the northwest. Intermittent spitting snow. Mid 20’s temp?
Snowpack: dense slab of new snow, some wind stiffened, on skin track on east to northeast aspects, some collapsing and whomphing. Hasty pit showed 8-10 inches of dense snow popping cleanly on the interface. Surprised to not see any avalanche activity in the zone, or get any reaction skiing though we mostly avoided 30+ degree slopes.

Avalanches: Good views of Gothic, Baldy, and Belleview. Looks like one recent crown on a NE aspect above treeline on Gothic, failing near the ground a foot or two deep. SS-N-R2-D1.5-O/G. Otherwise, no recent activity.
Weather: Broken to scattered cloud cover. Light winds at our elevation but plumes from NW winds off of 12k ft peaks. No precip.
Snowpack: HS averaged 40 cm below treeline. The bottom 5-10 cm is 1.5mm moist facets (F+), and above that is settled snow from recent storms (4F to F, rounds or DF’s). No signs of instability. As we approached near treeline elevations, snowdepth and structure became much more variable due to wind effects. Basal facets were dry, and in some places capped by low density recent snow or in others capped by dense wind drifted slabs up to 2 feet thick. These slabby areas were small and isolated in distribution. We observed some small collapses and cracks when crossing these windloaded pockets.

Avalanches: There were two R1D1 slides on an open NE slope. They appeared to be very shallow, only involving the top few inches.
Weather: Light snow during midday. Winds were generally moderate but with some strong gusting at ridge top. Visibility was limited. Observed wind transporting snow in several locations.
Snowpack: New snow accumulation at 1pm was about 7 inches. Snow surface in open areas was starting to stiffen and crack. Cracking was shallow and only extended a few feet in front of skis. Didn’t experience any collapsing.

Avalanches: 2 point release slides on N-NE aspects (R1,D1)
Weather: Wind blowing on ridges to the E-NE (cornices forming over E-NE aspects). Bluebird day (snow consistency stayed the same throughout the day).
Snowpack: Pit: fracture on ECT 16 (no shear break-off), 10 cm from the base. New storm layers appear to be consolidating with old storm layers. Sun crust forming on southern aspects.

Avalanches: Small bank slide
4 inch crown
adjacent to nordic trail
Weather: Snowy
Snowpack:

WP_20151116_08_06_08_Pro

Avalanches: no avalanches observed
Weather: Clear, slight overcast. Calm winds
Snowpack: relatively thin, southerly slopes completely baked clear of snow, northerly and shaded aspects hold onto 6-12″ snow from November storms. All snow is faceted.

Cement Mountain Close upCement Mountain wide view

Looking east toward Taylor Park and Italian Mountain

Looking south near Cement Creek Summer Homes turnoff

Avalanches: only old avalanches observed. Baldy slide Zach reported, as well as a few other similar slides down to the very earliest, slickest October snow on N-NE facing slopes N/ATL in feeder gullies of Emerald Lake Coulior, and coulior proper, which ran all the way to outlet creek of Emerald lake during last cycle.
Weather: Mostly Clear, variable non-transportable speed breeze at times but generally calm. High clouds rolled in midday, then diminished once out of the field. Fairly strong radiation, but cold in shade.
Snowpack: Mixed surfaces on all aspects and elevations travelled and glassed. In protected and non-disturbed areas (willows, glades, hollows) snowpack carries a slight slab still from our November 4-6th storm (4F-) sandwiched by a 2mm facet layer near the ground (october snow), and ~ 10-15cm of 1mm facets at the surface (November 10th storm). Varying thicknesses of wind crust from 1-10cm of pencil hard snow, with thin skim of near surface facets on top. Average snowpack depth ranged from 40-60cm.

Only surface hoar I observed was in very sheltered (from sun and wind) areas, particularly in drainages and near creeks (as one would expect). Slick wind buff dominated high elevation northerly aspects from our last system’s strong NW winds as it exited.

Southerly aspects BTL were quite moist all the way to the ground, and ATL were crusty (2-4cm thick).

photo of snodgrass runouts (taken from road)…shows coverage and twinkle of 1-2mm surface hoar and near surface facets

north side of Gothic…shows snow distribution…pretty windhammered..slick surfaces and isolated hardslabs

graphical pit on Mt. Baldy. ECTX..(slab broke on 26th tap)

Avalanches: Small R1 D1 point release under high point of Saddle on Owen.
Weather: Clear skies, sunny, warm. Winds picking up in the afternoon coming from the NW
Snowpack: NE-E-SE consolidating after most recent storm. Snowpack depth above 11,800′ ft ranged from 80cm-120cm in most areas. There were 3 apparent interfaces, the weakest layer remaining at the base. Rapid loading of E-SE beginning in the afternoon.

Weather: Cool, light wind, clear skies
Snowpack: 20cm of snow with about 8″ of new snow. Observed a few collapses on wind loaded rollovers. Skied protected tree runs on slopes ranging from north to northeast, and found no signs of instabilities.

Avalanches: none
Weather: sunny, warm, breezy on ridges
Snowpack: 6-8 inches of new dense snow on top of a firm crust. some collapsing in the lower part below treeline as we climbed up but no true signs of instability