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.

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

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Mt. CB

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few D1.5 to D2 slides on NE and E aspects of Schuylkill and Climax, N/BTL that ran sometime in the past 2 days. Good views of some alpine terrain without any obvious crowns, hard to say whether the winds smoothed avalanches over or were just too strong to properly load the classic start zones.
Weather:
Snowpack:

Photos:

Date of Observation: 12/04/2022
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic

Weather: A bit more of a ‘normal’ snow Saturday with 2″ new and a more what was once standard water content of 0.12″ of water. Snowpack reached 19½” deep and now at 19″, just slightly under average for this date. It was blissfully calm. Some clearing overnight and warm with the low 16F so far, after a high of 25F. Currently partly cloudy and calm. –Snow was still collapsing on level ground.

Date of Observation: 12/03/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Mount Emmons, E and NE aspects below treeline

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: Light snowfall, light winds.
Snowpack: Went back to some terrain that I had traveled through experiencing widespread cracking/collapsing during the first storm on Tuesday. This time there were fewer collapses but they were louder and some radiated further, up to 300 feet. Forested terrain is also developing enough of a slab for localized collapses in little openings. However, the avalanche slopes that we got collapses on did not slide; it seemed like there was just barely enough ground roughness to keep the ~16” soft slab in place.

Date of Observation: 12/03/2022
Name: Sam Micka

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Up to the goal post on Emmons (via standard skin track), laps on the upper glades. Ski out standard exit

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Observed some naturals in the bowl but visibility did not allow a full picture of the slope.

Weather: Overcast, light snow, winds ~10mph above 11500, poor visibility.

Snowpack: Widespread collapsing and cracking above 11500 ft. About 5 or so inches of fresh powder. Photos include a shooting crack just off the standard skin track, some naturals in the bowl, and coverage from the “goal post” looking towards axtell and carbon.

Date of Observation: 12/03/2022
Name: Zach Kinler

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Snodgrass Trailhead toward Gothic townsite

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Visibility was fading but there was evidence of a large slide in Coon Basin. E-NE aspect.
I remote-triggered a small avalanche from the flats just off the road on an East aspect.
Weather: Increasing clouds and moderate snow mid morning.
Snowpack: Reactive. Every small test slope with older snow collapsed and cracked with little effort. Found one that finally ran after the collapse on a steeper slope that had been previously wind loaded.

Date of Observation: 12/03/2022
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic

Weather: Wind Friday started moderate with strong gusting but by the afternoon was a steady blizzard with gusts around 40-50 mph- worst since last spring and the reason why people move to milder climates in winter. The snow was dense and wind driven so for the day there was 3″ new with water of 0.44″. Wind let up in the evening and it cleared and cooled with clouds returning around 3-4 a.m. The temperature rose from the low of 3F to the current 11 after a daytime high yesterday of 27. Currently cloudy and calm with 18″ on the ground, down from the hgh of 19″

Date of Observation: 12/02/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Driving into town.,

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: natural avalanche off Gibson Ridge immediately above the defensive berms. Did not look big enough to bury a person but probably take you for a ride.
Weather:
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 12/02/2022
Name: Daniel K

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Started at Wash. Gulch winter TH and headed up to 10800 on the furthest north of the west facing bowls on Snodgrass.

Observed avalanche activity: No

Weather: Windy enough at the TH to consider bailing. It had calmed down significantly by the time we finished a little after dark

Snowpack: HS ranged from 45cm at the deepest and barely anything on some of the scoured aspects. Some sporadic crust/facet basal layers found in flat areas and W aspects above 10200. One medium collapse on this layer around 10400 on 25-30 degree W slope and a few small collapses lower down in flats. No storm slab encountered, though wind effect gave some cream to the surface. Right side up everywhere we found new snow directly on the ground surface

Date of Observation: 12/02/2022

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: NE all day. Started at 9600′ up to 10,800′

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Vis was poor on the sled ride up but we had one window which I noticed a disturbance in the snow BTL on a NE aspect. I assumed it was debris from a long-running slide path off the uphill ridge. Without binoculars, too hard to tell. On our ascent, we (obviously) felt, heard, and saw many signs of an incredibly unstable snowpack. Again, “touchy” is the word. Once on the ridge, above a suspect slope which is barely 30 degrees, one of my ski partners very easily kicked off a small slide which gouged to ground and funneled into the trees. Although not a large avalanche due to slope angle and terrain feature, it would have been a scary ride. On the ascent for our the second lap, we triggered another storm slab from about 100′ vertical below. Slab moved about 1′ at the apex and fractured most of the adjacent terrain (to ground), but low slope angle and small area meant that it didn’t quite have enough energy to fully rip.

Weather: Blustery and snowy

Snowpack: Most pole probes went to about 60cm on average. Relatively dense storm snow on top of garbage. Downhill was fun.