Avalanches:
Weather: Snowing all day, mostly S1+ until about 3:30PM when prices rate picked up significantly. Nearly no wind. About -6ºC all day.
Snowpack: Deep. SkiPen in the skin track of 30cm to 40cm – deeper at higher elevations. Surface was light and dry, low density snow. At treeline, there was about 50cm of recent snow, which got progressively stiffer to the old / new snow interface. The new snow didn’t feel like it was adding much of a load or becoming reactive until about 3:30PM… Then it seemed like the scales tipped. The storm snow was becoming more cohesive. I saw more cracking and I heard more whumpfing. I had multiple CTM11 50cm down, below the sun crusts which represent the old/snow interface. A PST didn’t produce dramatic results, but the slope angle was in the low 20s. We managed a good day of low-angle pow skiing, but I am thankful to have tomorrow off – I think the snow will be much more active.

Avalanches: lots of high speed sluffiing, full track D1.5
Weather: Overcast skies all day, Snowing S2 throughout the day, moderate S SW winds, Kicking up to Strong @ 16:30.

17″ overnight, 7″ during day. Storm: 23″ / 1.65 (includes settlement)
Snowpack: Recent Observations: (Surface, structure, cracking, collapsing, PWLs, Ski Pen)
10:00-15:30 Storm right side up & generally well bonded to old surfaces & no cracking. Except a SS-D1 above Hollywood & Vine (see below)
~15:30 started seeing tiny D1’s with up to 25ft propagation ~15cm deep >37*

East: No sloughing via ski cuts through swill, Explosive triggered & skier triggered sloughs widespread through EBM to Thin line. Some up to D1.5 & running fast & far within storm layer.

South: Wind Slab D1 ran on old MfCr, 50cm deep all of HST (F -4f @ bottom) 30 feet wide, 40* @ ridgline above Hollywood & Vine. Confined by small start zone.
Sunny shoulder West –SE Soft Slab with variable shear quality on old crust interface, some SP others well bonded.

West: Fast moving sloughs reactive via ski cuts. Sunset L flushed D 1.5 with deposition well into the top of the Round Two trees. Far Out sloughed top to bottom by Big Trigger.

Avalanches:
Weather: Light snow Saturday (1½”) but steady, moderate to heavy and dense snow overnight, letting up around 5 a.m. The 24 hour total is 13″ with 0.89″ water. Snowpack at 49½” while temp. stays mild (low is the current 16F after high of 37F Saturday. No sign of slides but limited visibility. billy
Snowpack:

Avalanches: Heard a whump while passing by Washingtong Gulch T.H.
Weather: Trailhead in the morning: S1 snowfall, but dissipated once we were below Snodgrass. Calm all the way up Gothic road. Warm under overcast skies with very short periods of S-1 snowfall. Within 1.5 miles of Schoefield pass, encountered S1 snowfall and moderate winds, which were concentrated in the narrow valley south of Schoefield Pass. Winds transported enough snow to fill in our 2 to 4 inch skin track broken 10 minutes earlier. Once we were back in East River Valley Bottom, calm and no snow. Encountered light winds at trailhead at the end of the tour.
Snowpack: Trailhead: trace of snow at outset of tour (last 12 hours).
Rustlers Gulch to 1.5 miles of Schoefield Pass: 1 to 3 inches of snow (last 36 hours). In this upper zone, SW aspect had 2 inch sun crust, while SE had new snow (last 36 hours) on sun crust.

Avalanches:
Weather: Strong north winds in valley bottom and observed on ridge tops in morning. Apron. 1” new snow overnight, no precip during day – mostly clear skies with high, thin clouds developing in late afternoon. Temps in 20s most of the day.
Snowpack: Full-depth facets on north side of Snodgrass. HS of 80cm (ish) with knee-deep skiing on steeper terrain and boot top deep skiing on shallower terrain. No signs of instabilities, except for a couple, extremely small wind slabs (like the size of a mini-fridge) right at the ridge. No significant facet sloughing.

Avalanches: Touchy, very small windslabs running on crust 6-10 cm deep on freshly wind loaded SE aspects
Weather: Overcast cleared to scattered skies by mid day. Moderate SW winds with strong gusts and moderate snow transport, working over snow surfaces on windward slopes.
Snowpack: 5cm of new this morning, not bonding well to Jan 29 crust. On SE aspect ATL, this crust was 4-8cm thick with 1mm facets below it. On WSW aspect BTL, there were 2 crust layers near the surface, 2 cm thick, with 1-2 cm of fist hard faceting DF’s (.5mm) between and 0.5mm DF’s below the crusts. Jan 14th rounding facet layer was 55 cm deep, with CT12, SC results.

Avalanches:
Weather: Clear, Calm, Hot (high of 36F observed) w/ strong solar.
Snowpack: Widespread surface hoar up to 6mm on protected slopes. Broken down some by sun on lower angle slopes by afternoon, but still prevalent and 2-3mm in size. The surface snow continues to facet and weaken and lose strength and cohesion where HS is < 1.5M. Ski Pen mid calf deep; Boot Pen bottomless. No instabilities noted.

Avalanches: Lots of rollerballs and a few small wet loose from yesterday on steep SE, S, SW aspects N/ATL. A few more rollerballs today. Spotted two more old crowns from 1/20 – 1/21 cycle on SE aspects above treeline.
Weather: Clear, calm winds, warm temperatures
Snowpack: See photo captions. Surfaces have very small near surface facets on both north and south aspects. Large surface hoar below treeline in places. No signs of instability other than rollerballs.

Old crown likely from 1/20-1/21 cycle. SE aspect of Afley Peak. This one ran during Christmas cycle as well.

Large surface hoar in wind-sheltered, low elevation, shaded slopes.

Northerly aspects ATL hold a mix of Fist hard, soft rippled DF’s and 4F hard wind crusts. All have a very thin layer (<2mm thick) of .5mm near surface facets above.

Rollerballs on southerly aspects

Steep S/SE aspects ATL have a new crust, 2-4cm thick, with small grained (.5-1mm) radiation re-crystallization facets above. The facet layer was 1cm thick this morning above the crust, but it looked to have cooked upwards through the day leaving a 1-2 mm thick layer of facets on the surface by sunset. Below the crust is moist to dry DF’s down the the Jan 24th crust, which was about 5 cm thick and 25-30 cm deep.

Old crown likely from 1/20-1/21 cycle. SE aspect of Oh-Be-Joyful Peak.