Avalanches: Lots of roller balls and over a dozen small wet loose avalanches observed today off of steep rocky Southerly terrain.
Weather: WEATHER: Mostly clear, some high clouds, increasing NW winds in afternoon, strong solar.
Snowpack: SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS: Surface snow continues to facet and weaken on shady aspects. Solar slopes BTL & NTL got moist in the afternoon, low angle solar slopes stayed dry. Overall HS averaged 100-140cm. One small skier triggered crack observed on a steep rollover below some exposed rocks. Didn’t propagate very far and stayed in the surface instabilities.

Avalanches:

Weather: WEATHER: Few Clouds, noticeable inversion
10am T Surf: -13c T20: -11c
2pm Tsurf: -10.7c Air: -9c

Snowpack: Widespread surface hoar from the TH to the top of Coneys. The sun cut it down mostly throughout the day but some is still preserved in the shady spots. Hs varied from 110-120cm throughout coney bowl. No signs of instabilities. Ski pen: 19cm Boot pen: 40cm

Avalanches: None
Weather: Clear, calm winds, warm temps at higher elevations
Snowpack: See video.  In general, the Jan 14th layer is pronounced and weak (F+ hard, 1 to 1.5mm facets) on southeast and northeast aspects, but this area hasn’t seen the snow load yet to test it, except perhaps on heavily drifted areas. Fist hard soft slabs above the layer were <30cm deep and not reactive in pits and showing no signs of instability, except in a drifted area on a SE aspect NTL, which showed propagating results above the Jan 14th crust. There are multiple new crusts forming above the Jan 14th layer on sunny aspects. NE aspects look like they will be the first to shed if we see a big load.
The rest of the snowpack was faceted out below that layer. Most of these paths appeared to have run during December. Surface hoar/near surface facets forming on shaded aspects.

Avalanches: Significant explosive results (hand shots to larger 9£ AB) F to 1F+ (40-125cm slab) resting above large, moist 4-8mm striated depth hoar on Upper Upper West Wall (SW and West aspects)
Weather:
Snowpack: Beautiful low density powder from yesterday’s storm, minimal wind effect. Afternoon temperatures remained below 20ºF, helped keep surfaces cold on higher terrain, no crust formation on westwall.

1/26. Explosive triggered persistent slabs at Irwin.

1/26. Explosive triggered persistent slabs at Irwin.

1/26. Explosive triggered persistent slabs at Irwin.

Avalanches:
Weather: Calm to Moderate N/NW, light winds starting ATL & Moderate on ridge top
Snowpack: No signs of instability
light drifting had moved small amounts of snow in Alpine (small intermittent drifting onto old skin track)

Avalanches:
Weather: clear, calm, and cold. High temp of 17F.
Snowpack: SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS: small surface hoar growth in valley on top of a few inches of fresh, new low density snow that is decomposing and faceting. Overall average HS was 125cms and mostly all F and 4F snow with 1F mid pack on slopes w/o previous Avalanche activity.

Avalanches: Several natural D2 soft slabs that likely failed on or before 1/21/16 on SE and S aspects above treeline. (Galena Peak, Richmond Peak, and the ridge between Mt. Justice and Purple Mountain). One faint crown, D1.5, on a West aspect ATL on Garfield Peak.
Took quick look at the crown of the SS-N-R2-D2.5-O crown on the S/SE face of Purple that was first observed 1/21/16. The crown was roughly 70 to 120 cm deep. It appeared to fail on 4F-, 1mm facets below the Jan 14th crust, which was 4 cm thick, 1F. There were no noticeable facets above the crust at my pit location, just 1F rounds.
Weather: Clear, calm winds, cold in the shade, warm in the sun.
Snowpack: ~10″ of storm snow, largely unaffected by winds. Isolated soft drifts up to 18″ deep and some isolated cracking in the top few inches of snow. No other signs of storm instability except very small sluffs in steep terrain.
On a 30 degree ENE aspect at 12,000 ft: Total snow depth was 220 cm. The Jan 14th facet layer is 80 cm deep, 4F hard, 0.5mm in size and rounding. The slab above it is 1F hard at this interface, .3mm rounds. No propagating results in ECTs or PSTs. DT 22, Q2, SC.
On SE aspects N/ATL, the Jan 24th melt-freeze crust is ~2cm thick, supporting skis but boot pen easily breaks through. A thin new crust formed today on steep S/SE slopes.

Older crown lines visible looking north towards Snowmass Peak. Crowns on Richmond (foreground), Galena, and Justice Ridge. S and SE aspects ATL. Probably failed 1/20 or 1/21.

Explosive triggered slides today at Irwin. SW and W aspects in Robinson Basin.

Old crown on Purple Peak, S/SE aspect above treeline. The slide appeared to break below the January 14th meltfreeze crust on 4F-, 1mm facets, about a meter deep on average. Likely failed 1/20 or 1/21.

Avalanches: did observe one older 4-5 days old slide, west facing, off Baldy. Crossed Paradise Divide switchbacks, D2.5.

One fresh windslab 10-18″ deep, east facing, didnt see whole slide but potentially size 2 in steep terrain.
Weather: partly cloudy, light west winds, valley inversion
Snowpack: 6″ new snow, good skiing. Winds transporting snow lightly.

20160125_Windslab

Avalanches:
Weather: There was 3″ new snow in the past 24 hours with 0.18″ of water. Not overly significant. Snow pack at 40½” and it has been hovering between 38-42″ most days of late. Cleared and cooling at sunrise today.
Snowpack: South facing slopes have developed a crust and steep south slopes were sloughing over the weekend- just point releases but picking up some snow on the way down so could be a problem again later in the week if it warms (highs were 36 and 37ºF Friday and Saturday). billy