AVALANCHES: Observed a natural R2 D2 slab avalanche on a northwest facing bowl above paradise divide on Baldy. The slide appeared to be confined to the most recent snow with crown depths approximatly 10″-14″. Looks like this occurred in the last 48 hours.

WEATHER: sunny and warm. Inversion in full effect.

SNOWPACK: Skied west, southwest faceing aspects to the valley floor with no signs of instability. We encountered a highly variable snowpack throughout our tour.

AVALANCHES: Lots of small natural slides in Red Lady Bowl and off of Scarp Ridge. Mostly just sluffing snow, D1 maybe D2 at the largest (biggest appeared to be human trigged sluff from skiing Redwell) and isolated to steepest slopes. Saw evidence of a recent slab avalanche on a steep shaded slope in Redwell, but was way too far away to see anything else.

WEATHER: Splitter. Zero wind until we hit the Emmons summit ridge, then very light from the N-NW. Sunny all day.

SNOWPACK: Red Lady Glades alternated between breakable crust, mashed potatoes, and creamy powder. Snow was very dependent on sky cover, aspect, and elevation; surface conditions varied on a scale of feet.

WEATHER: Sunny skies, cold temps in morning around 5F, but warmed quickly in late morning. Sweating in the sun! Calm or no wind.

SNOWPACK: Today we skied in Elk Creek. Skinned up the ridge and found sun crusts on southern aspects, and weak faceted snow on northeast and east aspects. Lots of surface hoar. The snowpack was 3-4 feet deep. We skied a few short pitches on NE and E terrain. Around 6″ of new snow from the last few days’ storms. The snow underneath was pretty rotten. The new snow easily sloughed on steep terrain, especially around rock/pillow features. Just about every skier, every run caused a large slough that ran slow, but traveled over 100 feet. It was not hard to stay in front of the slough on your skis, but it could definitely push a skier into trees if you weren’t moving quickly. The new snow was fairly faceted, and these sloughs behaved like the facet sloughs we were seeing in December.

WEATHER: Clear and calm.

SNOWPACK: Well developed surface hoar observed at all elevations. Surface snow is already beginning to facet, and is losing cohesiveness. Ski penetration in this zone seems to be increasing with surface faceting cycle happening. Observed 2 fairly major collapses and some cracking when making hard ski turns on slopes around 35*, but nothing moved (see pic below). Slabs losing cohesiveness in this zone ??

UPLOADS:

Echelon cracks noted on hard turn mid-slope from skier on January 15th, 2015

SNOWPACK: 10” Sunday-Tues…ended Jan dry spell. Storm snow 10-20 cm, evenly distributed across terrain. Minor wind affect up high. Fell on mostly crusts and some “baked SH”. No signs of instability other than sluffs in past few days. Last two days of sun and warmup left breaker crusts on everything except west and low angle.

Avalanches: Small pocket released on steep, East cliffy terrain above treeline. Looked like new storm snow that had been recently loaded.

Weather: sunny, strong winds at ridgelines

Snowpack: 4-7 inches of new low density snow that fell over weak facets/windboard in the shade and melt freeze-crust or solar aspects

AVALANCHES: R-2 D1 sliffing in new snow. no persistent slab activity in well protected true north. NEXT to a tree line but in the open on 1500 vert foot face.
observed some huge hang fire not in my drainage but ready to go. Thankfull to be in the North Paradise Zone with a little more depth and consistency in the pack. Not much wind in the last 5 days and in yesterdays snowfall.

WEATHER: Sunny and warm

SNOWPACK: Solid pack, recent 12-16 staying reasonably well behaved. True North aspect. some minor sluffing in the new snow . Skied on completely shaded north face on pitches up to 45 degrees. Saw some R 2 D1 sluffs in a convexity and below rock bands but super solid in my non cross loaded slice. Isolated a column at the top of face 120 CM deep . Had to beat the sheet out of it to get it to move.

WEATHER: Clear. cold at TH in am (5F), warm in sun. No wind until about 1030 am. Light but steady and cold out of North.

SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS: About 10-15cm new snow from yesterday. very light and low density and no wind transport was obvious. resting on stout crusts on southerly slopes 30* or steeper, but bonding seems to be good. Surface storm snow thickening and heating up on steep south slopes by mid-day. 2 small but noticeable collapses felt while traveling on a shallow snowpack zone on ridgecrest near treeline. No other instabilities seen while traveling on slopes >35*.