Date of Observation: 03/03/2022

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Northeast side of Carbon from the Carbon Creek TH (8,800-11,400ft). Climbed E, SE & NE; descended NW & NE.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Two naturals that seemed fairly fresh. A wet slab (D2) on one of the east chutes. A wind slab (D1) below a cross-loaded ridge in the main cirque that started in the new snow and stepped down to near the ground above a cliff band.

Weather: Hot at 9:30, and only got hotter. No wind. Light cloud cover.

Snowpack: A mixed bag. Exposed E & SE slopes were already quite wet at 10:00. Some slopes were supportable, others were breaker. Lots of collapsing on these slopes, where you get the sense that the wet surface snow is levitating an inch or two above the junk below. Someone yesterday described northern pow as “cream cheese.” Today it seemed a little more like when you try to make ghetto ice cream by shaking milk, vanilla, sugar & snow in a ziploc bag for 20 minutes. Lightly rippled alpine snow (NW & NE) was fabulous! Down low (12:30) it was more like sloppy mashed potatoes with a little too much milk & butter.

Date of Observation: 03/02/2022
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Washington Cultch, mostly southerly facing slopes BTL/NTL.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A couple of fresh slab avalanches off of Schuylkill Ridge. Both were D2 in size and released at 11,200ft. One released on a northeast aspect and the other an east aspect. I suspect there were triggered by loose snow avalanches coming off the rocks or sunny slopes above. As the avalanches ran they entrained wet snow.

Various loose wet avalanches that have run in recent days on steep sunny slopes. Nothing particularly notable.

Weather: Hot and sunny. Calm winds. A few clouds came through.

Snowpack: Looked in various locations on SE to W looking at the wet snow and if water was creating issues as it encountered the mid-February weak interface. In a quick summary, I didn’t end up finding a particularly concerning area where water was hitting or about to hit a dry weak layer. Surface cracks in the top couple inches of the snowpack were everywhere, similar to what you may see in the springtime as the snowpack is rapidly changing.

10,800ft on SE and SW. The recent round of water had made it to the mid-February interface and I didn’t find a particular slab concern. Water had previously drained below the mid-February interface and created various percolation columns below those crusts and into the larger grained melt forms or facets below. Of course, there is variation in snowpack structure based on slope angle, and how big their drainage is, such as concave slopes or slopes below cliff bands.

11,600ft, SE aspect, 30-degree slope. The water had made it to the mid-February crust and was running along the crust at this location. After the pit was dug you could see the water continuing to accumulate in the pit wall. In this location, water had also previously drained below the crust, earlier in the month, and into the larger grained facets. A CT test produced no results.

West between 10,200ft and 10,600ft. The upper 2 to 3″ of snow was wet. While the 1 to 2-foot slabs on the mid-February interface were dry with no water close to the interface. Addintally, traveling in this area at the end of last week I had encountered many collapses and shooting cracks. Now everything was quiet, but the snowpack structure still remained concerning for the PSa problem.

Date of Observation: 03/02/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: 3 p.m. views of Rustlers Gulch, Copper Creek, Deer Creek, Pearl Pass, etc. from CBMR.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A handful of undocumented D1 to 1.5 wet avalanches that ran sometime in the past few days. One looked like a D1.5 wet slab on a west aspect NTL above Pearl Pass Road. In the same terrain feature, another D1.5 wet pile that I suspect could be a wet slab but couldn’t see the start zone. The rest were all D1 wet loose.
Weather:
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 03/02/2022

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Anthracites , Tree Chute and 7 Bowl

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: None in the immediate area

Weather: Calm and Warm

Snowpack: It was like skiing cream cheese . The warmth from yesterday made the snowpack dense anything exposed to the sun was getting crispy or starting to get wet by about 10am.

Date of Observation: 03/01/2022
Name: Ben Pritchett Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Keberl Pass corridor to snowbike avalanche slope near the Y and Red Lady Bowl in the afternoon

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Inspected the previously reported avalanches near they Y and in Red Lady Bowl.
Weather: Ridgeline Wind Speed: Calm
Wind Loading: None
Temperature: 50 F
Sky Cover: Clear
Weather Description: Very warm day, full sun, no wind.
Snowpack: We found 1-finger hard slabs resting on Fist-hard facets. The slabs were soft on top, stiffer at the bottom, with an obvious dirt stripe above the faceted weak layer.
At a northwest-facing crown profile above a snowbike-triggered avalanche from Sunday, we found a reactive, dry snowpack. ECTP 14 on the dry-spell weak layer.
Traveling through sunny, southerly-facing terrain on Mt. Emmons, we experienced many dozen collapses with long-running (100’s of feet) cracks. Meltwater reached the dry-spell facets and created unstable conditions.
A profile on the flank of a large skier-triggered avalanche in Red Lady Bowl showed the meltwater reached the weak layer yesterday. Water wicked through the low-porosity facets. Today, meltwater reached another 10 to 12 inches below the facets into the upper part of the Holiday Slab.

Date of Observation: 03/01/2022

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Carbon via Splain’s Gulch. 9,200-12,000 ft. NW & NE aspects. Traveled on slopes at or below 30 degrees.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few very small snowcat, skier and snow machine-triggered pockets along the road cut in Splain’s.
Weather: Calm, clear and balmy!
Snowpack: Lots of collapsing, including a few that felt more like small earthquakes. Most of the activity was in or around forested terrain, but there was one big one on an open, more alpine slope (25 degree) near treeline that sent cracks rocketing out toward the steeper terrain to the west of me. Widespread surface hoar on open slopes to about 10,600 feet. Solar aspects were super mushy later in the day. Had to wax my skins four times and scrape my bases three times. I despise gloppy snow! Snow quality on north aspects was fabulous. Skating on the groomed roads was all-time!

Date of Observation: 02/28/2022
Name: Tim Mahan

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Keebler pass TH, through the Y, through lily lake, through splains.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: 1x SS-AM-D2-U-250’x300’ approx. West facing BTL slope adjacent to Ohio/kebler pass Y.
Weather: CLR, 30-40f
Snowpack: N/O

Date of Observation: 02/28/2022
Name: Miles Morris

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Climb red Lady skin decend red Lady bowl 2x
First decent was skiers left of red Lady, slide released well after I was off the slope.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: R1 D1 18″ 100 yards wide, 500ft vertical
Weather: Clear
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 02/28/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Standard Snodgrass up-track and descended 3rd bowl area.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Lots of natural activity from the cycle last week. Most ran early in the storm with crowns well filled in and a few that ran towards the end. Many slopes greater than 35 degrees ran naturally, but not all start zones had evidence of recent avalanche activity. I suspect some features endured the loading event due to previous skier traffic. I skier-triggered a tiny loose avalanche on a steep, below treeline feature on southeast aspect at 1pm. Numerous small wet loose avalanches were visible on the east side of Gothic Mountains. They all began from rocky features; I’m uncertain if they occurred today or yesterday.
Weather: Clear skies and warm temperatures. Calm winds below treeline.
Snowpack: Southerly slopes soften before noon and I was able to produce a small wet loose avalanche at 1 pm. The top few inches were wet with couple inches of moist snow before the old crust.
On northerly terrain, I experienced a few moderately-sized collapses in low angle meadows. The slab resting above the February near surface facets was around 18″ thick and up to 1 finger hard. Two test profiles produced moderate propagating test results (ECTP 14,16). The weak layer is about 6 inches thick of fist hard 2mm facets. Signs of instability were less common than expected, but many lower angled slopes I traveled across appeared to have shattered during the loading event so that may have reduced the signs of instability. Surfaces hoar was present on N and NE slopes around 3-5mm in size.

Date of Observation: 02/28/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Baxter Basin area. Traveled on various aspects to 11,500 ft.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A pair of snowmobilers riding tandem on one sled remotely triggered a large persistent slab on an east aspect near treeline. The associated crack wrapped about 900 feet around the terrain feature, but the slab only released about 200 feet wide. The slab was 70 cm thick, mostly F to 4F with about 8 cm of 1F near the bottom in the dust layer. The weak layer was…. you guessed it…the mid-February dry spell layer: 1 to 1.5 mm facets, fist+ hard. The snowmobilers triggered the slide after several passes adjacent to the slope and were not in harm’s way when it released.
We also intentionally triggered a couple of small slabs of similar thickness below treeline on small steep test features. A handful of D1 wet loose slides ran either today or yesterday at all elevations on E to SE to SW aspects.
Weather: Warm.
Snowpack: Obvious signs of instability were hit or miss without a particular rhyme or reason. We noted one rumbling collapse on an easterly aspect around 10,500 ft that shot cracks across some small supported rollovers without producing any slides. I noted a handful of other shooting cracks while riding around on lower angle terrain further down valley near Schuykill Ridge, and some of the steep rollovers that we tested produced cracking while more often they did not. Lots of large rollerballs on steep southerly aspects, surfaces on the sunbaked aspects were getting warm and wet.