Name: Evan Ross
Location: Washington Gultch
Date of Observation: 12/20/2014
Aspect: North East, East, South
Elevation: 11,000

Avalanches: No recent avalanche activity noticed in the Washington Gulch area.

Weather: On and off S-1 to S1 through the mid-day. Overcast sky. Light NW winds not transporting snow around 1pm.

Snowpack: Lots of low density storm snow just waiting to be blown around by stronger winds.

Test profile on an East aspect just below ridge line (attached below). Storm snow on the 12/13 interface was F-F+ and this little bit of cohesion produced propagating results on NSF layer in stability tests. Storm snow on a North aspect at the same elevation and on a similar terrain feature lacked any cohesion and didn’t produce similar results on the same interface. If the storm snow had some cohesion or slab the results would likely have been the same on the widespread NFS layer between the different aspects. The big difference between these two slopes were in the bottom 10cm of facets. The North aspect held fist hard DH that produced SC results in compression tests. The bottom 10cm on the east aspect was 1 finger facets and produced no results in CT tests. Both slopes held about 80-90 HS.

The storm snow continued to show good bonding to 11/13 crusts on a South aspect.

Many BTL Southerly slopes in Washington gulch are still bare ground or hold a very shallow HS. In general, Washington Gulch seems to be holding a shallower HS then right next door in the Slate River drainage. As well as much less recent avalanche activity.

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• 20141220.Washingtongultch.pdf

Avalanches: Observed about a dozen recent slab avalanches on N/ATL slopes in the bowls above Pittsburg below Schuykill Peak., all D1 in size, but some with impressive propagation for their shallow crown depth. The pattern was any slope that had seen a breath of wind that faced NW to NE. Checked out one crown, 8″ deep, fist hardness, over the Dec 13th facet layer. Foreshadowing….

Weather: S-1. Winds began to increase around 4 p.m. with blowing snow.

Snowpack: 8-10″ of fist to fist+ hard new snow over the Dec 13th facet layer, Fist hard, very pronounced facets. One minor crack observed.

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Snowpack: at least 12 inches of unconsolidated new snow on the old layer. Little to no slabbing of the new layer, also little to no observed bonding to the old surface. Some collapsing and cracking as we poked around the top of half, first and second bowl. Small natural loose snow avalanches observed above pencil chute, and we could see a small deposition pile at the exit of the chute, but couldn’t tell if it was entraining snow as it ran or was running on top. A couple turns at the top of half bowl easily produced sluffing which did seem to entrain the snow lower down as it slid, but no stepping down or propagation. Ended up skiing the glades and gullies around the skin track and at this slope angle we didn’t see instabilities.

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 12/19/2014
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 10500-11.000

Weather: fair, some clouds

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Avalanches: Observed a number of natural avalanches worth noting. (1) the E/NE facing slope directly above the first switchback on Slate d’Huez looked to be very recent. Looked to be a R4/D3? The crown had some smallish blocks – storm slab likely as opposed to a slough point release. Entrained a lot of snow and ran to within feet of the valley floor. Went very wide. (2) a day-old (at least) small pocket near Purple Ridge pulled out just below the ridge and ran to a prominent bench. (3) a W/NW aspect on Gothic looked like it went too, but we were looking from pretty far away. Looked very similar to (1) above. There were numerous other smaller sloughs and pockets, but these were the 3 biggest of note. The smaller pockets were not going to the ground. None of the terrain we skied showed any signs of instability.

Weather: Weather was light overcast around 10am, changing to clear skies and sunshine by about noon. No wind at 10am, picked up to a tiny little breeze around 1:30pm.

Snowpack: Dug a pit on an unskied N aspect at treeline on a slope in the low 30deg’s. 160cm of total snow. 12″ or so of new snow. Did a test on an isolated column and got a shear at 15 on what we thought was the Thanksgiving layer (I’m not sure on the dates of those storms). Shear was at 100cm. Lots of new snow out there.

Avalanches: Significant sloughing of surface snow upon ski cuts in sparsely vegetated and steep gullies. Initial slough affected the surface layer, but ran to ground quickly and carried facet layer with it. Debris carried approximately 300 feet.

Weather: Clear skies, ~25-30ºF, none/light wind

Snowpack: Snowpack differed greatly between vegetated areas and open gullies.

In gullies, approximately 6″ inches of fresh powder above ~5″ of facets to the ground. Very little consolidation between layers, but did observe some cracking in surface layer on boot penetration.

Within trees, approximately 6″ of fresh powder above breakable crust (ski pen. 6″, boot pen. 2′). Knee-deep post-holing through crust while hiking back to road after deciding not to ski.

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Avalanches: New snow is not bonding to the rotten snow from Thanksgiving. Fresh snow running readily on steep slopes, picking up momentum and gouging into the facetted base. First turns into half bowl produced a soft slide with a 10-12 inch mini-crown that ran for 100+ feet. Bailed and skied the lower angle trees near the skin track. Natural slide through the Pencil and lots of other releases observed in 1st and 2nd bowls.

Weather: Intermittent light snow. 10-15 degrees.

Snowpack: 8-10 inches of new snow over the past couple of days. 2-3 inches of fresh on the skin track. Light and unconsolidated snow on top of facets.

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