Date of Observation: 02/10/2022
Name: Chris Martin

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Lindley hut to friends hut, traveled Copper Creek from Lindley hut to Pearl Pass.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: None
Weather: 2/10 – Windy
Snowpack: Observation from 2/10: 5-15 cm wind slab formation on NTL, N facing slopes observed in Copper Creek area (traveling lindley hut to friends hut).
Observed many Cracks and Collapses in newly formed wind slabs, found mostly in NTL, N facing terrain where terrain could create extra sensitive wind catches. Minimal formation observed in ATL Terrain. Tested a few smaller slopes, Hard slabs were not releasing on 30-35* slopes

Date of Observation: 02/11/2022

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Through cement plant up a well established track. Lots of skiing done here, tracks all through the woods and gullies. coming out of the woods going up the standard ridge pointing north. About 2/3 up on the ridge leading to the flatter part we were right on the rounded edge on a 20 ish degree slope. If you would have bet me will it slide here I would have bet $100 with 99.999% certainty that this would never go. I would have lost that bet. 27 years in the backcountry, go figure.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: We heard a whoomp, I looked thinking it would just settle as it usually does, but in a moment it started moving and both skiers fell. Due to low angle movement was very slow, both skiers got held up in trees just 25 feet lower. In all a minor event, one lost pole no injuries, but a definite wake up call. The crown was all of 10″ tall tapering to 4″ to the north west. The whoomp propagated to the south around the edge of the ridge and set off another 45ft wide sluff of blocks 8 inches thick that ran down about 500 ft from the crown. It propagated to the top of the ridge about 100ft above the trigger.
Weather: Sunny, no wind, not too warm, but not too cold.
Snowpack: no new snow in weeks, an aging snow pack.

Date of Observation: 02/10/2022

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Peeler

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered hard slab in steep 40-45 degree N facing ”protected” and gladed terrain. BTL. ~10,700’. Hard slab was max 8” thick and fairly isolated to terrain feature but entrained a TON of loose facets on a slick surface resulting in impressive momentum gain and running to valley floor; ~800’.

Weather: Partly cloudy skies, moderate temp with cool moderate NW wind.

Snowpack: Highly variable…

Photos:

Date of Observation: 02/10/2022
Name: Ben Ammon Kyle Juszczyk

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Scarp Ridge, Peeler, Schuykill

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Peeler-ENE ATL D1 Loose Dry avalanches. The larger of the two triggered multiple 4-6″ windlsabs as it ran.
Schuykill- D1.5 Loose Dry Avalanches, 10″ F hard FC at the surface, we found no slab.

Snowpack: Steep South aspects were supportive and warm before clouds and wind arrived mid-day.
No signs of instability noted on N-facing ATL terrain off Scarp Ridge.

Date of Observation: 02/10/2022

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: 10,200-11,800 feet east-facing “secret chute.”

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:

Weather: Partly sunny with thin, high clouds. Very light WNW breeze at the ridgetop.

Snowpack: About 2/3 of the way up (11,400ft), HS was 130cm.

Date of Observation: 02/09/2022
Name: Steve Banks

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Poverty Gulch

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Saw the cutest little windslab that popped out recently on a little roller in micro terrain. NTL elevation but more characteristic of ATL.

Weather: I felt the sweet sweet tickle of snowflakes dancing on my face. Then it stopped. Scattered clouds became overcast by 2 pm. Intermittent moderate winds from the NW causing some drifting near and above treeline.

Snowpack: Yikes. Facet factory. In areas that had previously slid this season we found full depth (70-80 cms) of large grained facets. Other areas with a deeper snowpack had 10-15 cms of large grained facets over a very stiff (P) midpack. In many areas the facets were capped by a stiff wind board, up to 8 cms thick. Despite all this, the skiing was pretty alright.

Date of Observation: 02/09/2022
Name: jeff banks

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Axtell

Observed avalanche activity: No

Weather: increasing winds > 10,800 to Moderate to Strong for the afternoon

Snowpack: ~10mx15m fracture, whumpf & collapse of Diamond shaped windslab
~2-4 inches deep bordered by corn snow all around, easy to identify as isolated pocket & gauge depth
10,850, #SE, ~33*

a few minutes skinning higher up as we reached the tree limit & the fresh wind slabs were:
gaining in thickness ~10 and deeper
continuous, linking up are bigger swaths of terrain & unavoidable
so bravely ran away.

Date of Observation: 02/09/2022
Name: Jack Caprio

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Whetstone Claw. North- east- southeast aspects up to 11,700 feet.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Nope!

Weather: Scattered to broken cloud cover. Moderate NW winds with strong gusts.

Snowpack: Northeast facing terrain near treeline was variable and wind affected. Every now and then you’d get a nice turn in soft, faceted snow whereas your next turn would be punchy wind affected snow. Wind slabs in this terrain were 2-3 inches thick, and discontinuous due to trees and rocks. No concerns of sluffing in the near treeline elevation band. As we descended below treeline into protected terrain the ski quality improved and sluffing concern increased.

Date of Observation: 02/09/2022
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Brush Creek 9,900-11,400ft. E-NE.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered a few small sluffs. Below Treeline, ENE.

Weather: Clouds built up in the morning and alternated between partly and mostly cloudy. Snow flakes did fall from the sky but they didn’t stack up to anything.

Snowpack: More of the same. Felt like L1 avalanche danger with no avalanche problems until you found a slope with all the ingredients for the loose snow avalanche problem. #1 Northerly facing. #2 Protected from the wind. #3 Steep, near or above 40 degrees. If you check all those boxes, then loose snow avalanches are basically guaranteed to be human triggered. Any triggered sluff was small, predictable, and manageable. The terrain was the magnifier for increased hazard or consequence, not the avalanche problem itself.

Due east facing slopes had surface crusts capping the facets that eliminated the loose snow avalanche problem. If you get slightly north of east than the crusts faded away, or of course any terrain influenced shading also eliminated those surface crusts.

Date of Observation: 02/09/2022
Name: Benn Schmatz

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Skied Redock from the near the summit in Wolf’s Lair (West Facing) which was sunbaked crustyness and dropped out of that run into an open shot to skier’s right (WNW facing) and found the goods… and by goods I mean 10 inches of facets soooo.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Ski triggered sloughs in facets at 11,000′ that ran the entire slope. No propagation, roughly 5 inches deep. By the time we reached the bottom we ended up cooking the whole slope

Weather: 4/8 cloud cover strong NW breeze at ridgetop. light flurries of snow here and there