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.

Date of Observation: 12/02/2022
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Kebler Area Tour. Northerly, 10,000ft to 11,500ft

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered a couple of small slides. The first was while descending small, but steep terrain. The 2nd was while bouncing for a collapse, resulting in a remotely triggered avalanche from about 25 feet away.

Weather: Strong winds and blowing snow most of the day. Hard to gauge how much it was snowing vs blowing.

Snowpack: HST was about 20cm by 1 pm at 10,500ft. A distinct layer of graupel near the base of the storm and plenty of graupel mixed in with other perception particles within the storm now. Thick and supportive new snow. Made the low angles ski really well. Total HS in the area is around 100 to 120cm.

Lots of collapses and shooting cracks in the snowpack, as has been normal lately. Each time I looked, those cracks were extending down to the weak sandbox near the base of the snowpack.

Date of Observation: 12/02/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Mt. Crested Butte, gladed low angle skiing on northerly aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Ski triggered a couple of 12″ soft slabs breaking on our weak facet layer on small rollovers in the trees. Saw results from mitigation teams on Horseshoe that failed on the storm interface and old facet layers, D1 in size.
Weather: Moderate snowfall rates and strong winds with periods of intense wind transport.

Date of Observation: 12/02/2022
Name: Zach Kinler

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: East ditch trail above 4th and Red Lady

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: Cloudy with nnow squalls. Moderate West wind in open areas.
Snowpack: On an afternoon dog walk, I was able to collapse just about every small slope I stepped on producing shooting cracks. These features were not big enough to run but larger ones certainly would have. Westerly winds were moving snow in open areas below treeline. 6-7″ of new snow from this storm, which was fairly dense.

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Date of Observation: 12/02/2022
Name: Billy Barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Townsite

Weather: Cloudy overnight with snow starting before 3 a.m. light to moderate but very dense with 3″ new and water 0.31″ with the snowpack at 16″. Gusting wind at times. Currently obscured with light snow. High temperatures the past 24 hours was 36F, low 24 and the current 25. A wet, heavy snow to start out.

Date of Observation: 12/01/2022
Name: Dan Hohl

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Second Bowl uptrack, Coney’s.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
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Snowpack: Collapse and shooting cracks observed on East facing slope Below Tree Line. Hasty pit showed a snow depth of 55cm with a failure interface 40cm below the surface, consisting of a crust/facet layer 2-3cm thick on top of depth hoar 2-3mm in size. The slab on top of this interface was 4F hardness.

Date of Observation: 12/01/2022
Name: Billy Barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: viewed from Gothic townsite

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: two small avalanches on northeast slopes of snodgrass than ran late Wednesday or overnight.
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Date of Observation: 12/01/2022

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: small hills near Snodgrass trailhead

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: some real small avalanches from the storm
Weather: sunny skies, snow blowing off summits
Snowpack: snow depth about 2 feet on shaded terrain. sporadic surface hoar moderate size.  a few small collapses. many slopes were covered in cracks but didn’t avalanche.

Date of Observation: 12/01/2022
Name: Zach Kinler

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate River TH to bottom of Purple Palace

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Continued documentation of the widespread avalanche cycle on East through North aspects.
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