Date of Observation: 12/04/2022

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Snodgrass viewed from Gothic Road

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Recent small slide just before Tuttle Cabin. See photo.

Date of Observation: 12/04/2022
Name: Dan Hohl

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Toured up WA Gulch to Second Bowl. Multiple collapses in flats below Coney’s and on the uptrack.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: One natural D1 avalanche in Cat’s Hat Glades. Bed surface did not appear filled in, likely occurred between in the last 24 hours.
Weather: Overcast skies, warm temps, light winds SW.
Snowpack: Average depth 75-80cm. Fist trending to 1F slab on top of large Facet layer located 45-55cm below the surface. Great riding conditions on lower angle terrain.

Date of Observation: 12/04/2022

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: 9600ft-10800, on SE-ENE aspects. Stayed on slopes in mid 20°s to low 30°s steepness in very isolated spots with no overhead danger.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Despite incredible whumpfing all day long, many of which rippled through snow hundreds of feet away from us, we saw no avalanches that haven’t already been reported here. We did trigger shooting cracks extending as much as 50 ft long.
Weather: Intermittently overcast, light wind at ~11k ridgeline, eventually light snow in late afternoon. Temps were high 20s-low 30s
Snowpack: Performed two ECT tests at sites at BTL and NTL elevations, roughly ENE facing. Season snow totals in both locations were near 1 meter. Storm slab from the past few days was about 45 cm and quickly transitioned from Fist hardness in the top 5 cm to 4F, to 1F in the bottom ~15 cm of this new snow. Below were a few decomposing sun crusts that ranged from 1F- to almost not present (Fist hard) at our upper pit. Below those were 2-3 mm sized facets all the way to the ground; this layer was ~30 cm in depth, and Fist hard.

Lower Pit Results: ECTP 3, Q1/Sudden Collapse @ 23 cm (within basal facets); after more loading, we got: ECTN 14, Q1 @ 35 cm (storm snow-old snow interface)

Upper Pit Results: We prepped and saw that the extensive whumpfing had already collapsed the same layers we saw shear in our lower pit, which unsurprisingly gave us a false stable result of ECT X, but still saw the same problematic structure.

Beyond attempting to nerd out, the snowpack made for perfectly supportive hippy wiggles.

Date of Observation: 12/04/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Pavement avalanche obs.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few natural avalanches from east and northeast aspects of Whetstone and Gothic Mountain. The Gothic avalanche clearly is big enough to bury a person(D2) and a couple on Whetstone looked to be large(D2) as well, but visibility was poor so made my best estimates on size.
Weather: Mostly cloudy conditions in the early afternoon when I made the observation.
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 12/04/2022

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Slate TH up the lower switchbacks of Gunsight Road and back.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Mostly cloudy, no wind, no precip
Snowpack: Really noisy. Continuous rumbling collapses and shaking trees as we skied up the road. Very little cracking observed. Jumped at the top of several steep banksides with no results. HS at 9400’ 60 cm. Ski pen 5 cm, boot pen 60 cm, Labrador pen to the belly. The slab deposited this week was very supportive to skis, not so much for the pooch. An early retreat was called.

Date of Observation: 12/04/2022

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Marble Point

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Evidence of previous Na cycle to size 3 (>72hrs old)
Weather: OVC, Warm temperatures 45F/7C at the parking area (8800ft) at 1030am
Snowpack: Above 10,000ft the upper snowpack was well settled and fast (4F resistance) with a 10cm skipen due to warm temps and previous wind. Below 10k the sfc is moist with a couple wet loose avalanches (<size 1) and large pinwheels on all aspects. 90cm of recent hst (4F) overlies an ugly mess of facets. Many whumphs in untracked areas with localized cracking.
TP @ 10,800ft, E Aspect, HS 130cm, CTM (SP) x2 dwn 90cm on the notable FC interface.

Date of Observation: 12/04/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Baxter Basin and Cascade Mtn, Traveled on various aspects up to 11700′

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous natural D1.5 to D2 slabs from the last storm, most on North to East N/ATL, with a couple that rounded to Southeast and South-Southeast aspects. Light was flat so it was hard to make out exact sizes and crown connectivity. See photos. Tried getting some smaller terrain features to release without any luck.
Weather: Clouds increased mid-morning. Light winds with light transport at times. Mild temps.
Snowpack: Frequent collapses, some localized, some rumbling across entire terrain features. Slabs are generally 2 feet thick and average 4F hard over our well-advertised weak layers. We targeted a pit on a due south slope that held old snow prior to the recent storms. The crust capping the large-grained facets is about 6 cm thick, and tests did not propagate.

Date of Observation: 12/04/2022
Name: Benn Schmatz

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Traveled from Gothic along Rustlers Gulch Road up onto the lower slopes of Mount Bellview. Knowing the severe instability of northerly slopes we were curious how
South aspects are faring.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: R2 avalanche in the top of the bowl on Mount Bellview under the cornice. R1 avalanche seen in Gnarnia on East face of Baldy as well
Weather: Mid 20’s. 5/8 to 8/8 clouds calm wind
Snowpack: Cracking and collapsing was constant during our tour except for slopes that were bare prior to the most recent storm cycle. We picked a slope similar in aspect to the upper slopes of Mount Bellview and found a very cohesive storm slab covered by 11cm of fresh, light snow. The slab is resting upon a firm layer of old snow form October and Novemeber. This firm layer of old snow was covered in a weak layer of weak deformed grains (facets or hoar… hard to tell). This layer under the slab failed an extended column test at 22 taps.

Date of Observation: 12/04/2022
Name: Jason Sumner

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Red Lady Glades dad’ski. Standard skin track to goal posts. Standard ski down and out to road.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Viewed from skin track along ridge a decent sized crown and debris field on east side of bowl around 11,800 feet. Pulled out above rock band and ran into upper bowl on looker’s left.
Weather: Thin cloud layer. Intermittent gusty wind once out of forest and onto ridge.
Snowpack: Saw several cracks on way up and had one pronounced collapse during traverse from ridge to goalposts at around 12,000 feet on S/SW facing aspect. Coverage highly variable and quite thin in places due to wind transport but skiing was mostly decent all the way down to road.

Date of Observation: 12/04/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Slate River Road

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous recent D1 – D1.5 avalanches on Schuylkill Ridge and a few D2,  on E-NE aspects N/BTL. A few D1.5-D2 in Redwell Basin as well. See photos. Looks like most of these ran during the storm on Friday, but a few look crisp enough that they might have run yesterday.