Avalanches: Several natural avalanches observed that failed overnight during the storm. See photos and video.

• 2 large natural slab avalanches on a N to NE bowl on Mt. Baldy, above treeline. They appeared to be sympathetic, with their combined start zones spanning 700 feet, and debris ran 1,800 vertical feet, almost reaching the creek at the bottom. Crowns estimated 2 – 3 feet deep. Failed on 1mm facet layer on the ground. SS-N-R2-D2-O/G
• 1 natural slab avalanche on the north face of Gothic Peak above treeline, failing near the ground but smaller in width and length than the Baldy slides. SS-N-R1-D1-O/G
• 2 natural wind slab avalanches on a SE shoulder of Baldy near treeline, estimated 1-2 feet deep and 75 feet wide, likely failed on storm interface. SS-N-R1-D1-I

Weather: Scattered clouds. Cold temps. No precip. Moderate northwest ridgetop winds with strong gusts; moderate snow transport.
Snowpack: The persistent slab structure existed above 10,700 feet on north and northeast aspects. Slab depths ranged from 40 cm up to 90 cm, above ~5-10 cm of 1mm facets. At 11,600 ft, the slab was 4F at the bottom up to F at the top. 30 cm of storm snow. The storm interface was indistinct in pits, with no surface hoar observed in several locations and no results in extended column tests. Clean shovel shears though.

 
Weather: Overcast skies. S-1 transitioning to no snowfall. Winds were light with moderate gusts, transitiong to just light winds. Winds were strong enough to fill in skin tracks between road and first hill climb.
Snowpack: About 3 to 4 inches of new snow

Avalanches: None.
Weather: Increasing clouds, moderate south winds, temps near 30*F. Elkton weather station (aka Dan K station) is now fixed! We are putting a bounty out for the live capture of the marmot that keeps chewing through our electronics every summer.
Snowpack: Snow depth roughly 4-6″ deep, moist snow with melt-freeze crusts at the surface. The surface hoar got cooked on steep south and southeast aspects, but lingering on east aspects and lower angle slopes. Steep aspects have <1mm near surface facets growing above the crusts on these slopes.

Avalanches: One R2, D1, Avalanche on Augusta’s NE arm, Crown height ~30cm appeared to release in a mid storm layer, did not inspect crown interface. Probably 3-5 days old.
Weather: Cool, Clear, Gorgeous before 11:00 am.
Snowpack: SE-S-SW slopes below 11,500 all held thick pencil hard crusts from this weekends sun. Those crusts were topped by small near surface facets and 2-3mm tall surface hoar crystals. HS around 60cm primarily sitting on ground not previous Oct snow.
NE-N Persistent slabs lurk. Probing revealed HS to be between 90cm and 130cm above 10,500. Two pits yesterday revealed right side up pack until a quick shift from 1F hard storm slab to 10cm of fist hard basal facets. Did a fair bit of traveling on these aspects today, did not experience any settlements. Small near surface facets developing here. Ski pen 10-15cm.

Avalanches: Looked as though some slopes slide mid-storm on N-NE-E aspects above treeline.
Weather: Cold and clear in the morning with temps rising throughout the day. Calm winds throughout the day.
Snowpack: Still pretty shallow below 10,000 feet. Found thin crusts from yesterday’s sun on southerly aspects with snowpack on solar aspects above treeline around 40-50cm almost entirely comprised of recent storm snow. On North-NE facing aspects above treeline we found 95 cm of right-side-up snow with the bottom 10 cm weaker faceted crystals from prior snows. On two ECTs we got ECTN and ECTP (23) Q3 fracture at interface with faceted layer.

Avalanches: Small loose dry observed on NE aspect of Mt. Baldy
Weather: Mid-late teens early in the morning with temperatures rising steadily throughout the day and peaking in the mid 30’s around 12:30pm. Sunny, clear skies, calm wind.
Snowpack: -Saw a little bit of everything today on Mount Bellview.
-The most recent storm snow was settling, measuring 15-20cm deep in most areas. The exception was on the W-SW facing aspects, where it was significantly shallower (5-10cm)
-W-SW aspects appeared to have frozen into a crust the previous night, slow to soften throughout the day.
-Windloading occurring on S-SE-E aspects. Cornices beginning to form on all of these aspects. Wind slab forming at higher elevations mainly on the SE-E about 25cm deep.
-N Aspect: 3cm facets at the ground layer, buried by 2 interfaces (approx: 15cm each), each forming significant slabs. Lower slab was weaker and less cohesive than the upper.
-Heavy springlike conditions in the basin 12:30-1:30pm.

Avalanches: No slab avalanche activity. Many steep cliff areas shed dry point releases during storm.
Weather: clear skies with very occasional light winds. Temp was 8 f at 9am at TH. temp in the sun at 11400 was 35 f at noon.
Snowpack: On sunny aspects the snowpack consisted mostly of new snow with only a few patches of old crust underneath higher up. Shaded aspects had 1mm facets underneath new snow. One location on a ENE 35* roll at 11200 had 5cm basal crust , 35cm 1mm facets, 45 cm new snow. Tests showed both interfaces had not bonded well. Snowpack overall showed signs of settlement which made riding conditions more supportable. Noticed only small amount of wind effect snow up high on NE flanks of Richmond.

Avalanches: On a north facing bowl on Mt Baldy. SS-AS-R2-D2-O

Photo credit Austin Gibney