Date of Observation: 01/12/2022
Name: Zach Guy and Evan Ross
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Upper Yule Creek
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Documenting more activity from 12/31 cycle that we missed from the flight
Date of Observation: 01/12/2022
Name: Zach Guy and Evan Ross
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: East and West Beckwith and Anthracite Creek as viewed from the Blob.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Recording a handful of previously undocumented avalanches that likely ran around 12/30 to 12/31. Viewed from afar, and some crowns have been partially drifted in, so sizes are best estimates.
Date of Observation: 01/12/2022
Name: Evan Ross & Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: We started low at Slate River TH, but mainly traveled in the upper Yule Creek area between 12,800 and 10,800 on W to N to E aspects.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: No new avalanche activity. A few more old avalanches that have not been documented. With closer inspection, we decided that the previously documented avalanche that spanned between Purple and the Blob was another D4 from the holiday cycle. Just another impressive avalanche from that cycle.
Weather: Thin clouds creating partly cloudy sky. Steady moderate winds in the alpine, primarily from the W-NW in the morning and more NE in the late afternoon.
Snowpack: In the alpine, the wind was transporting snow throughout the day. However those winds were creating more variably snow surfaces and wind effect, then they were actually creating new wind slabs. In those same areas, we were also managing old hard slabs that have been created over the last couple of days by recent winds. These slabs were hard, only a few inches thick, and stubborn, but ready to take you off your feet in terrain that you wanted to stay on your feet.
Between Purple and the Ant, there are few places that the snowpack wasn’t altered by the holiday avalanche cycle. We did travel in steep terrain on slopes that didn’t appear to have previously avalanches, but most of the terrain traveled had previously avalanched or had old avalanche debris, all of which has been covered back up by new snow in January. West and Northwest aspects held more trigger-points or areas that the snowpack would go from shallow to deep abruptly. Surprisingly we made some of our best turns on a steep NW aspect starting below about 12,600ft and just below all the windblown snow surfaces near the ridgeline.
All in all for the deep persistent slab avalanche problem we chose to reduce our risk by managing trigger points vs slope angles.
Date of Observation: 01/12/2022
Zone: Northwest Mountains & Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Climbed to the top of Coon Basin from town. Descended into Red Lady Basin via upper Red Coon Glades. Caught the Red Lady lap track and climbed the standard route to Gunsight Pass. Descended Redwell Basin to OBJ. Skated back to town on the nordic trails (nordic pass displayed, of course). 9,000-12,200; mostly N, NE, S & SE aspects.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Lots of old crowns, but nothing new. A few small point releases in rocky terrain on solar aspects.
Weather: Beautiful Day! Very slight and intermittent NW breeze. Sunny and quite pleasant.
Snowpack: S & SE aspects held a firm, supportable crust with spring-like corn skiing. Watching a few folks dropping in, it looked like the snow in RLB was still soft. Snow on shaded N aspects was dense, smooth & soft. Very little wind-effect in Redwell except at the very top. Nordic trails were exquisitely groomed!
Date of Observation: 01/11/2022
Name: Harrison Bosler, Math Alagna and Zach Kinler
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Drove to Crested Butte Community School, walked to hillside west of school.
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: Blue skies, strong solar, cold temps remained in the valley floor
Snowpack: HS was 90 to 110 cm on NE aspects in town. Very supportive snowpack with 15 cm boot pen. The 12/6 interface is quite thin making up the bottom few centimeters of the snowpack and is sintering and gaining strength. The snow is strong immediately above and below the 12/23 Melt-freeze crust and does not appear to be an issue here. The 1/6 Graupel layer produced easy CT results and Non-Propagating ECT results as there is little slab on top of it in this shallower snowpack, will keep an eye on this one as slabs grow above. 4 mm surface hoar has formed on the surface and will likely continue to grow especially at these valley bottom locations.
Date of Observation: 01/11/2022
Name: Josh Jones
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Mt. Axtell Half Bowl
Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: 8 Degrees
4.0 MPH NNW wind
0/8 Skycover
Snowpack: Deep and consistent snow observed on northwest to northeast aspects on Mt. Axtell’s Half Bowl. At about 10500′ and below we observed surface hoar, with large grains in spots. Great skiing conditions.
Date of Observation: 01/11/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Upper Slate. Traveled mostly on E and NE aspects to 12,000 ft.
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Nothing today. Spotted a few more small wet loose avalanches from yesterday on south facing ATL terrain.
Weather: Thin scattered clouds, light westerly winds at ridgetop. Mild temps.
Snowpack: No signs of instability. Snow depths averaged 3 meters. I probed on a slope that is often thin and wind eroded and snow depth there was just over 2 meters. Snow surfaces are morphing into small-grained near surface facets. Evidence of northwest winds drifting some snow overnight, but didn’t see any obvious wind slabs where we traveled.
Date of Observation: 01/10/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Upper Peeler Basin and OBJ Basin, traveled mostly on E and NE aspects from 12,200 to 9,500 ft.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A handful of wet loose ran today on sunny aspects near treeline, D1 in size. Spotted a few more small soft slabs on leeward terrain (D1) that failed on Saturday on the storm interface. Also noted two slabs that broke around the same time but a little deeper than the storm interface, likely on the graupel layer that was buried ~1/6. These were a bit thicker and denser, D1.5 in size, and in classic graupel pooling locations on aprons below steep, cliffy terrain.
Weather: Gorgeous day. Calm, clear, mild temps.
Snowpack: Snow surfaces moistened and produced rollerballs and sluffs on steep southerlies. We triggered dry sluffs on shady aspects. We carefully chose slopes with deep, uniform coverage and saw no other signs of instability today. Tested basal weak layers on an east aspect near treeline (see photo/profile). The crust/facet combo near the ground (12/6 interface) still looks quite fragile and produced propagating results in a PST below a 155 cm hard slab. The 1/6 graupel layer also propagated across the entire block, about 30 cm deep, after the block initially collapsed on basal layers. Snow depth at valley bottom of OBJ creek at 9600′ is 155 cm.
Photos:
Date of Observation: 01/09/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Scarp Ridge to Oh-Be-Joyful Peak, viewed from Schuykill Ridge
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few more that we missed from the helicopter, ran late in the cycle around 12/30 or 12/31.
Date of Observation: 01/09/2022
Name: Andrew Butterfield
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: SE end of the NW zone. Started at 9400′ and climbed to 11500′ on S, SW and SE aspects.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A couple small loose wet tumblers below a few rock and cliff bands. Looked to be just the recent snow shedding off with solar warming. Nothing else to note.
Weather: Pleasant and sunny. No wind until I hit the ridge and wind on the ridge was light (5-10ish mph tops).
Snowpack: HS was hovering around 110 cm leaving the sled and tapered up to 140+ cm closer to the ridge. I didn’t pull my probe out to find exact snow depths near the top of the ridge. New snow depth varied from around 10 cm down low to 15+ cm up higher. Trail breaking was incredibly easy all the way up, supportive to skis and boot. Looked to be small drifts on more easterly aspects, in the usual cross-loaded terrain, and ski pen was marginally deeper on aspects that had an E tinge, but nothing substantial. The sun/ warm temps have already worked on the snowpack on the sunnies and continued to do so today. No signs of instability on anywhere I traveled in my tour. Looking across the valley, true westerly aspects ATL were pretty stripped and the cross-loaded gullies held the majority of snow on W facing terrain.
