Date of Observation: 03/06/2022
Name: Ben Ammon

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Snodgrass

Observed avalanche activity: No
Snowpack: Multiple small collapses above 10,600′ on NE and SW terrain. All in sheltered terrain, fairly thick trees which likely helped protect from the sun in the SW terrain. Also got one small slope to collapse on a SW slope around 10,000′. Traveled a lot of terrain between 10 and 11k’ on S and SW around 35 degrees and noted no other signs of instability. No slab forming in the storm snow. Face shots likely.

Date of Observation: 03/06/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Anthracite Mesa. Traveled mostly on NE and SW aspects to 10,900 ft.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: We saw a couple of small natural soft slabs that likely ran yesterday on the storm interface (a sun crust) on cross drifted, south facing, below treeline slope. Decent visibility looking towards Schuylkill Ridge and couldn’t see any fresh large slides.
Weather: Overcast with light snowfall filling in this afternoon. Light winds with moderate gusts out of the southwest shifting to west. No blowing snow where we were; couldn’t see the alpine.
Snowpack: Up to 16″ of settled storm snow, still fist hard. Once we ventured off of the beaten skin track on Coney’s, we got numerous rumbling collapses about 3 feet deep on the mid-February dryspell layer. These were on NE aspects and a WNW aspect on slopes less than 35 degrees. Most of these collapses required a few hard stomps with my skis to initiate, a couple went while simply breaking trail. Conversely, on southerly aspects, our only concerns were managing storm snow instabilities over thick crusts left behind by the warmup. The new snow appears to be bonding well to the storm interface below the treeline on those sunny aspects, based on ski cuts and a lack of cracking in steep terrain. I poked into one bedsurface from the 2/23 cycle on a NE aspect. The dryspell facets are still intact (and worse off than slopes that haven’t avalanched) but it doesn’t seem as if this storm produced enough of a slab for repeat offenders here yet; I got non-propagating pit results and no signs of instability on the slope.

Date of Observation: 03/06/2022
Name: Andrew Breibart Jonathan Cuppett

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch TH to Coneys

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: We observed one avalanche below the ridge line near the high point of the mesa. Appears to be SS-N-R1-D1-o. Failure occurred on convexity in a wind loaded area below the ridge line. The fetch near the ridge has no vegetation. Slope angle of the crown appears to be between 30-35 degrees. We think the failure occurred on melt freeze crust.
Weather: obstructed skies and light winds.
Snowpack: Up to 16 inches of new snow in the past 48 hours. Standing about 15 feet apart on the ridge above the avalanche in this observation, we both each felt a localized collapse.

Date of Observation: 03/05/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate River rd out to Pittsburg.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Lots of Loose avalanches in the storm snow at all elevations – small in size. Numerous small slabs breaking in the storm snow below treeline – small in size. Observed a debris pile below Climax Chutes on far lookers right end that may have been close to a D2 but could not see start zone well enough to make sense. East face of Cinnamon appeared to have a slab avalanche below the cornice but I wasn’t able to identify with confidence.
Weather: Light snowfall from 10 to 1pm and intermittent snowfall with some sunshine between 1 – 330. Winds remained light below treeline, but I could hear it blowing at upper elevations.
Snowpack: Near Pittsburg, 18″ of very low-density storm snow. Winds below treeline were light with some evidence at valley bottom of transport overnight. A few glimpses into alpine terrain revealed transport near and above treeline on to leeward east aspects. Sheltered terrain had a Loose Dry avalanche problem and a few features, gently kissed by the wind, produced cracking up to 20 feet, but behaved much like a Loose Dry avalanche due to low-density storm snow. Stability test on northeast slopes below treeline produced no results. Looking at the February weak layer on a slope that did not avalanche during last week’s natural cycle showed increased hardness (4 finger) and rounding but remains much weaker than the overlying slab. Traveled through a northeast-facing slope that avalanched at the end of last week’s natural cycle without signs of instability but the February weak layer was still present. An east-facing slope had a 3-4cm melt/freeze crust beneath the storm snow.

Date of Observation: 03/05/2022
Name: Billy Barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic townsite

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: Only a brief light snow around sunset Friday but then moderate to heavy snow starting a few hours before sunrise. Currently obscured cloud cover with moderate snowfall and light SW wind. There was 9½” new snow with water totaling a light density of 0.62″. Current snowpack at 59½”. There had been 4 days of record high temperature until yesterday but mild overnight last night with the low, and current, of 20F. billy
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 03/05/2022
Name: Cosmo Langsfeld

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Cement Creek Ranch

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: ~2.5” since beginning of storm.
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 03/04/2022
Name: Zach Guy and Jack Caprio

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Mount Emmons Happy Chutes area. Traveled on E and NE aspects to 10,000 ft.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered a handful of moist loose avalanches on NE aspects below treeline, D1 to 1.5 in size. They entrained more snow than you might expect because the moist surface snow plowed through the sandbox of dry facets below once sluffs started gaining momentum.
Weather: Warm and cloudy, with enough sun filtering through the clouds for excellent greenhousing.
Snowpack: Snow surfaces got damp on all aspects that we traveled on, which spurred rollerballs and pinwheels on more northerly aspects which have stayed mostly dry all week. We looked at a number of NE-facing slopes that avalanched naturally during the last cycle. The previous avalanche activity did NOT flush out the facet layer; rather they just scraped off the top layer of the sandbox and left a thin bed surface crust in places. I expect repeat offenders on these slopes once slabs rebuild. We got several localized collapses (radiated about 10 or 15 feet) on low angle east and steeper northeast. We got a mix of easy propagating and non-propagating results with ECTs. Hard to find steep terrain around here that didn’t run naturally during the storm. On a steep ESE slope, the top 6″ is a stout melt-freeze crust and water has percolated through the sandbox. On a steep ENE slope, slabs were getting moist and/or there was some kind of thin surface crust, but the weak layer remained dry or could have been moist in some slopes.

Date of Observation: 03/03/2022
Name: Mark Robbins

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Anthracites/playground

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Maybe previously reported? On playground up track, assuming it ran during the last avalanche cycle. Didn’t closely inspect but looked like the full pre-presidents day storm slab running on the dry-spell surface. See photos.

Snowpack: Got two small but somewhat puckering collapses breaking the up track in the playground. At 11,200-11,300 due north. Touring back up the south side just after noon, surface was wet but still supportive. Noted a few deep widely propogating cracks, see photo.

Date of Observation: 03/03/2022
Name: jeff banks

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Skied mostly Sunny aspects & short N facing slope

Observed avalanche activity: No

Weather: 4F at 8:00, climbing out of the valley inversion temps were warming fast
intermittent thin clouds & negligible wind did little to slow the melt

Snowpack: 20-25cm re-freeze this AM in valley floor
~10-15cm re-freeze ~10,000ft

~9:20 Passed on skinning up SE slopes > 30º as the crust was quickly melting and exposing the moist, weak facets below. poor structure in shallow snowpack.

S & SW have much more developed (thicker & full corn) melt freeze structure and more more supportive to skis as the day warmed.

Only traveled on 1 N face slope ~50m in size, but produced:
2 Medium shooting cracks & collapse ~5m long & 2-3cm drop
1 Large shooting crack & collapse ~15m long & 3-5cm drop

Date of Observation: 03/03/2022
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Upper Slate River, many aspects between 9,600-11,300ft.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: 1 loose wet avalanche on a west aspect above treeling. Otherwise nothing new and notable.

Weather: High clouds, hot temps, and calm wind.

Snowpack: The PSa problem felt stuborn with no obvious signs to instablity. Also no collapsing or obviouse signs to instablity traveling on the sunny half of the compass and in areas with a wet snowpack. I traveled on steep slopes, but not big slopes.

You have to get close to a north aspect to find a cold snow surface. Otherwise, the snow surfaces were wet. East and west aspects will have a notable crust, that crust will thicken of course as you head south around the compass. I didn’t find an area where water had drained to the February weak layer on east and west aspects, but there will still be a couple-inch thick crust on the current snow surface. Lots of water moving through the snowpack on SE to S to SW aspects and those will be locked up once they freeze again. This whole area looked like it would take a notable load before we see another widespread natural avalanche cycle. Mostly due to the thick crusts and the thick slabs, with the mid-February weak layer gaining some strength under those slabs over the last week.