Date of Observation: 02/26/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Valley bottom obs near Mount Emmons along the border of NW and SE mountain zones.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several large natural avalanches from around 2/23 – 2/24 in Wolverine Basin, Redwell, “The Shield”, and Red Ridge above East River Valley.
Weather: Clear skies, light westerly winds, seasonably cool temperatures.
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 02/26/2022

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Anthracite Range

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Large slab avalanche reported to CBAC via social media. “Definitely surprised. Concave feature, never seen it slide before.”

Date of Observation: 02/26/2022
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Upper Slate and Upper East River.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Remotely triggered one large avalanche, below treeline on a west aspect. Crown estimated to be 45 to 50cm. 1 large natural avalanches from the last cycle on south aspects above treeline. Lots of other avalanche activity to see, but it all fits the big picture and may have already been documented.

Date of Observation: 02/26/2022
Name: Zach Kinler

Zone: Border between SE and NW mountains.
Route Description: Descended from Top of the World to Gothic Campground, ascended same route(Gothic Mt Tour course).

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Got good eyes on some terrain near the border of our NW and SE forecast zones. Saw several avalanches on West and Northwest aspects as well as a few more on East and Northeast. Slides were seen in all elevation zones failing on the mid-February junk show likely on 2/22 or 2/23. All were D2 in size.
Weather: Northerly winds kept things feeling quite wintry out there. Abundant late February sunshine felt nice and warm in sheltered terrain.
Snowpack: Traveled on low angle East through SE facing slopes mainly. Still a bit noisy out there with any open areas producing collapses that echoed through adjacent terrain. Got several long running cracks while snowmobiling in similar terrain. In some cases, it took a hard stomp into the weak layer to get the collapse or the second/third person through the feature. Slabs were around 2 feet resting on top of weak facets or facet/crust combos. Moderate propagating results indicate a snowpack still on the mend. Observed some transport onto south aspects at upper elevations due to north winds.

Date of Observation: 02/26/2022
Name: jeff banks

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Skied SW-W
BTL to NTL 10,000-12,000

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: too many to count in the distance
Weather: cold, clear, light to moderate W wind
Snowpack: ~30 collapses
Some dropped the slope a 1-2 inches under foot.

Medium to Large collapses that in some cases shook snow off of small trees 10m away.

Slab is gaining strength & ski pen is getting shallower ~25cm deep.

Date of Observation: 02/25/2022
Name: Dave Koz

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: From Irwin

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: significant slide off the SE face of Ruby

Date of Observation: 02/25/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: A look at natural avalanches on Climax Chutes. Several of these avalanches were reported in an observation on Wednesday.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Widespread mid-storm avalanche cycle in Climax Chutes. Per a previous observation, most of these likely ran early Wednesday morning. Thin cloud cover obscured good views of crowns, but aprons below each Climax Chute had a substantial amount of debris with two paths creating very large debris piles. Small portions of some features may not have failed, but overall Climax looks to have cleaned out a major portion of the storm snow.
Weather: Just hazy enough to muck up clear photos of the start zones Friday morning.
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 02/25/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Natural avalanches visible from Elkton Knob

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A bit ol’ pile of natural avalanches from east and northeast slopes near Schuylkill Peak.
Weather: Efficient wind-loading on upper elevation terrain.
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 02/25/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Snowmobile out Slate River to just past Pittsburg. Ascended west and southwest terrain to Elkton Knob. Descended the same terrain.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: In this terrain, there were numerous natural avalanche midstorm (partially filled bed surfaces) on west-facing below treeline terrain, generally D1.5 with one D2. We remotely triggered a steep west rollover from several hundred feet away.
Weather: Light snowfall and obscured skies in the AM gave way to mostly clear skies by 4pm. Overnight new snow accumulations around 2 inches. Westerly winds were transporting good amounts of snow above treeline and some near treeline.
Snowpack: Lots of loud collapsing on the February “drought layer” beneath the recent storm snow. Some collapses ran several hundred feet and shattered slopes less than 30 degrees. One collapse was able to connect to a small, steep rollover releasing a small avalanche 70cm deep. Westerly slopes tilted to the south had a thin melt/freeze crust capping the horrendous weak layer and northerly-tilted west slopes had the slab resting directly on the weak facets. Both structures behaved very similarly with long-running collapses. West-facing terrain below treeline is very much in the bullseye for human-triggered avalanches.

Date of Observation: 02/25/2022
Name: Zach Kinler

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Wash Gulch to Top of the World

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous D2-D2.5 avalanches failing on the mid-February junk show with brief views towards the Ruby Range. Lots of action on E-NE facing slopes. Looking at crowns, most likely failed on 2/22 and 2/23. A couple looked to have failed a bit more recent due to ongoing wind loading.
Weather: Cold and Blustery, clearing skies throughout the day
Snowpack: