Date of Observation: 04/15/2022
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Kebler Pass area. 9,500ft to 12,000ft. Various aspects.

Weather: Overcast in the morning, partly cloudy for a bit mid-day, before increasing again in the late afternoon. W or SE winds are still blowing snow at upper elevations.

Snowpack: At near and below treeline elevations the snow service got moist or wet on north to east aspects. Mostly just roller balls on northerly facing slopes and not sure at what elevation the snow surface stayed dry. East was the most reactive at these elevations with small loose wet avalanche activity. Didn’t travel above treeline, looking into the ruby range you could see some roller balls or small loose snow avalanches on steep southerly facing slopes with rock outcrops. Found wind slabs up to a foot thick, but couldn’t get any notable results. Many things are blown off or just not loaded. The wind slab problem felt isolated and stubborn at NTL elevations.

Date of Observation: 04/14/2022

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Standard uptrack to Birthday Bowl (9,000-11,400ft). Descended the northern-most ridge 200 feet and the cut into the main bowl on a ENE aspect.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Triggered a sluff on a steep rollover (around 11,000ft) that knocked me over and carried me 400ft down the slope. Only the new snow (20-25cm) slid on a very firm (and dirty) crust. D1 in size but entrained a decent amount of snow with the toe of the debris 100cm at the deepest; 40-50 feet wide at the widest point. Relatively slow moving, but it feels quite fast when you are in it. Bumped into a couple of small trees, but fortunately just some bruises on my right leg. Deployed my airbag (almost didn’t bring it) midway down and came to a rest on top of the debris. Feeling thankful to be (mostly) unharmed and processing the poor decisions that led up to the slide. After not seeing much movement in the uppermost turns (on more northerly aspect) let down my guard when entering the more easterly (and steeper) terrain. I could have anticipated the firmer bed surface and continued managing for sluff by skiing across the terrain. The more easterly snow, while still dry and soft, was a bit heavier than what we had initially encountered at the top of the ridge. Luckily it was just a good lesson learned and a pole and a ski lost today. I will carry the lesson with me and I will find the gear when the snow melts.
Weather: Overcast with light W/SW winds. Temps in the upper 20s to low 30s.
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 04/14/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate River corridor to Purple Ridge.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: The light was extremely flat which made it difficult to read the terrain. I did not observe any slab avalanches but could see some dusty (brown), narrow bed surfaces on lee slopes at upper elevations. I suspect most of these were small loose avalanches from the previous day.
Weather: Overcast skies, no precip, and generally light winds with moderate gusts at ridge top. I observed some loading on to easterly aspects up high.  Winds were a bit lighter than expected and fetchs on westerly slopes have become stiff and are running low on transportable snow.
Snowpack: I traveled through mostly open terrain at all elevations and found snow surfaces to be noticeably stiffer than the previous day. Numerous hasty hand pits below treeline produce not concerning behavior. The new snow is well bonded to crusts below however shovel tilt tests continue to produce a planar result near the bottom of the storm snow. It took more force today to get a result in shovel tilt tests. Digging in well drifted leeward feature I was not able to get any notable test results even though there is a clear strong over weak structure present (see image). The most drifted terrain had a stiff surface that was supportive to skis. I was not able to produce any shooting cracks or find signs of instability yet chose to avoid the skiing drifted slopes.

Date of Observation: 04/14/2022
Name: jeff banks

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Axtell Zone

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Axtell 4th + 5th Bowl, Numerous D1’s failing on the dirty old snow just below the corniced ridgeline.
Started in ~40º Terrain + lost momentum as the slope lessened.
Weather: Cold + Overcast in AM
Wind picked up again in the late AM
Snowpack: BTL: More Dense from the wind than yesterday. Trees had about 30-40% of snow in their branches on N facing slopes.

Stomped off some fresh cornices at treeline on ~30º slopes

Many Aspects held firm surfaces where the dense wind slab sits. Dense over Dense, lacking an obvious weak layer.

Date of Observation: 04/13/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate River Corridor to Pittsburg. Skied into the basin on east side of Schuylkill Peak.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: I observed a few small loose snow avalanches, two slab avalanches in wind-drifted terrain, and skier triggered two small wind slabs near treeline that were 12 to 18 inches deep. Poor visibility limited views into the Ruby Range.
Weather: Overcast skies, cool temperatures, and the constant westerly wind. Occasional light snowfall in the afternoon but no accumulations. During periods of improved visibility, there was a constant stream of blowing snow at upper elevations focusing on the easterly aspects.
Snowpack: At 10,500 feet I measured 12 inches of storm snow with 1.1″ SWE near Schuylkill Peak. In sheltered areas, I found storm snow without slab properties but a storm density change near the bottom of storm snow. Sheltered terrain could produce loose avalanches on very steep terrain. As soon as I found drifted terrain, I was able to produce shooting cracks up to 20 feet and easily triggered two small slabs on leeward rolls in the basin. Leeward features had drifts up to 2 feet thick. The triggered avalanches failed on the density change near the base of the storm snow.

Date of Observation: 04/13/2022
Name: daniel kreykes

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: California bowl

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Super sluffy new snow on crust on open E/NE slopes with supportive crusts. Only a concern on the steepest entrance pitches, but first turns entrained a fair amount of new snow and ran 250-300′ into trees.
Weather: Cold
Snowpack: Nice light pow on crust

Date of Observation: 04/13/2022
Name: jeff banks

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Splains + Axtell Region

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: none observed
Weather: cold, overcast, light intermittent snow. ~1cm over the day.
Increasing Howling winds -can hear the train through the Kebler corridor. Plumes up on red Lady glades & Evan’s Basin (see photo below). New snow ripped away, down to dirty corn.
Snowpack: 2″ overnight, Storm Total 9″-11″ observed.
BTL: No sign of windslab on N + E slopes, just good riding snow quality.
Tree bombs increased from Zero to Widespread as winds increased through out the day + the old growth swayed. No wind effect on snow in open clearings BTL that we skied, just in the tree tops.

Hearsay: Ran into a skier finishing on Axtell 1st Bowl. He said the snow was sluffing in the narrow chutes through the old growth. Then became windslab in the open (poor quality skiing but not reactive under their skis)

Date of Observation: 04/12/2022
Name: jeff banks

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Splains to Carbon

Observed avalanche activity: No

Weather: Variable:
Carbon light winds w/ sun breaking thru making it feel mild
Under the Kebler Cloud cap: cold + snowy, light winds except in Kebler Corridor

Snowpack: No signs of instability on Wind sheltered slopes.
Did not venture into areas with strong winds.

BTL Intense wind transport in the Kebler corridor
BTL Slopes, all Aspects outside the corridor no wind transport

Storm snow was stuck remarkably well on moist, unfrozen, old snow surface.
Splains region 7″
Carbon region 2″

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

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Mt Axtell, Northerly, 9,500ft to 11,500ft

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: In steep terrain near 40 degrees the new snow sluffed easily. Several natural loose snow avalanches in similar terrain. A few small pockets produced a very small slab. All avalanche activity was small in size.

Weather: This was an afternoon tour. Accumulating snowfall continued through the afternoon with a few breaks of clearing weather. Down valley winds were transporting snow, but we were hanging out in mostly wind sheltered areas.

Snowpack: 6 to 7 inches of new snow on average with some settlement through the day with the periods of sun popping out. On NE and E facing terrain the new snow was more noticeably thick and settling quicker. On steep due north facing terrain the riding conditions were the best with a deeper and dryer feel. No real slab avalanche problems were encountered in this mostly wind-sheltered terrain, and loose dry avalanches were the primary problem. Those avalanches were predictable and relatively easy to manage.