Date of Observation: 05/07/2023
Name: Chris Martin

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Today we traveled up Purples SE ridge to the top of the S couloirs and descended the couloirs with careful evaluation of snow totals and slab cohesion, with techniques that mitigated our exposure.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Dry loose, slow running

Weather: Low visibility, Light-Moderate winds and blowing snow. Cold.

We decided after last weeks warmup to wait for weather stations to reveal the refreeze this weekend and the cold temps that persisted throughout yesterday and today gave us the confidence to push into the alpine for today. The refreeze remains minimal below 2′ down on South Aspects.

Snowpack: 6-8″ of wind blown snow on top of a MfCr. We observed minimal and shallow cracking that remained local to the tips of our skis. The new snow seems to be bonding quite well to the old crust.

We observed pockets of deeper wind transported snow, we did not encounter anywhere these totals were connective across an entire slope as a recipe for propagation.

While traveling we also noticed the warm up from last week in the snowpack. Specifically on South aspects the freeze penetrated about 2 feet down from the past freezing temps since the morning of 5/4 and snow was moist/wet below that.

Date of Observation: 04/30/2023
Name: Insta Gram

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Ruby Peak.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Large slab avalanche off Mt Owen, with debris to Green Lake. Appeared to be cornice triggered.

Date of Observation: 04/29/2023
Name: Turner Petersen

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Sledded up wash gulch and skied Quigley Creek Bowl and then the east bowl on Baldy with Syd and Sam.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Still seeing isolated NE Wind Slabs. Second skier triggered a small pocket. Turned to slow loose wet toward bottom. Ran maybe 400’.
Weather: Sunny. Warm. Winds from the NW.
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 04/28/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Upper Slate and Yule Pass areas. Traveled mostly on easterly and northerly aspects to 12,600′

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: On north-facing terrain ATL, I skier triggered a thin wind slab (~6″ x 8′) and a loose dry avalanche that both ran about 800′ (D1s).
Wednesday’s sunny weather after the storm spurred a wet shed cycle around the compass except for high northerlies. These were mostly wet loose, D1-1.5, and a handful of slabs up to D2. Not sure if they were moistening storm slabs or wet slabs; the debris looked fairly wet.
Weather: Clear, unseasonably cool temps. Moderate northwest winds were blowing the 1″ of new snow around with small plumes off of high peaks.
Snowpack: 1″ of new overnight and winds formed isolated, thin wind slabs ATL. These appeared to be bonding well on solar aspects; got one to pop on a crossloaded north facing slope. There’s up to 10″ or so of recent storm snow from the Tuesday night storm which hasn’t fully transitioned yet and could continue to produce more wet loose activity this weekend, especially to human triggers. At 1 p.m. while skinning up Yule Creek (~10k’, fairly flat terrain), we were getting widespread collapses on the dust layer, which was about 6″ to 8″ deep and saturated. Most collapses were a ski length or two wide, but some produced shooting cracks up to 30′ or 40′. This suggests there is potential for thin wet slabs this weekend as well, similar in character to the avalanches on Schuylkill Ridge shown below.

Date of Observation: 04/28/2023

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Mt. Owen, north side ATL

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered a soft slab. See photo.

Date of Observation: 04/26/2023
Name: Turner Petersen

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Skied the M face on Whetstone with Tom Rob and Dan.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: We kicked the top cornice which produced a very isolated and small wind slab that entrained any available surface snow on a stout north crust. Ran 1000′.
Weather: Sunny. Winds from the NW.
Snowpack: 5′ of new snow on a firm glazed north crust.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 04/25/2023
Name: Whitney Gilliam

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Skooks main skinner!

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: Cloudy, warm, off and on precip
Snowpack: Noticed lots of water in the snowpack ~1ft+ down in the snowpack while breaking trail… hard to say if it was because of rain or a poor freeze. Didn't think too much of it, but near the skooks bench I experienced two large wumphs/collapses and decided to turn around :)

Date of Observation: 04/22/2023
Name: Mark And Turner

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: AMR, playground

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Intentional windlip/cornice triggered small storm slab south anthracites which ran full track. Video on insta, freeze frame below.

Ski triggered thin wind slab east facing top of y chute which ran 500 ft or so. See photos.

Skied north facing below tree line with no other signs of instability

Weather: Intermittently heavy snow and sun, with some afternoon graupel. Light winds, cool air temps

Date of Observation: 04/22/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: NE-E-SE 9,500-11,500. Purple Ridge Area.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: At 1pm, wet loose avalanches were reactive on NE and E below 11,300ft. These were generally small, but where they could run and accumulate mass they became large in size. We skier triggered several small wet avalanches and one become large in size. Another party had triggered more wet avalanches in similar terrain.

Weather: Convective snow showers with some moderate winds and drifting snow during those periods. The greenhouse was in full effect.

Snowpack: Recent storm totals were around 20 to 25cm at 11,000ft. Less snow at lower elevations and more snow at higher elevations… On the lee side of Purple Ridge, the drifts were a couple of feet thick. It was difficult to assess how far the thicker drifts extended into the slopes below. Wind slabs felt stubborn, but there was a notable lower-density layer of snow near the bottom of the drifts.

Snow surfaces become moist to wet on the sunny aspects, and thick/moist on northerlies BTL.

Date of Observation: 04/19/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Kebler Pass road up to Scarp Ridge.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: none
Weather: Light snowfall with obscured views. Strong southwest winds.
Snowpack: At 330pm, storm totals were less than 2 inches.  Snowfall rated increased as I left the area.  Strong winds blasted the snow towards leeward terrain features. The lowest-elevation terrain, below 9,500 feet, snow surfaces were soft from mild-ish temperatures but did not pose a loose avalanche threat. I dug a quick hole on a north-facing slope immediately adjacent to Crested Butte and found meltwater had drained 2+ feet into the snowpack. There was still some free water present. I do not expect this to create any avalanche concerns; I was simply checking on how deep meltwater has drained on the warmest north-facing slopes.