Avalanches: Wet loose D1s off UUWW terrain and East face of Owen.
Weather:
Snowpack:
Avalanches: None
Weather: Clear & warm & calm
Snowpack: ~25-30cm refreeze last night
no signs of instability
SE-SW @ 8,800-10,400 SH was burned off but found it on W & N aspects
W aspect @ 9,360, @ ~13:00: SH (~5-10mm) & FC ~5cm deep on top of 3cm MFcr, then 5cm FC on top of strong MFcr
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unnamed-11Avalanches: A handful of recent wet loose avalanches on steep sunny slopes from the past few days. One full depth glide avalanche and one narrow wet slab avalanche, both on easterly aspects BTL, ran sometime in past couple days. No signs of instability where we traveled except some rollerballs on sunny slopes.
Weather: Light NW winds, clear, warm.
Snowpack: Widespread, well-developed near surface facets (1-1.5mm) and patchy surface hoar layer (2-5mm+) on the surface on all shaded or low angle terrain. At lower elevations, this is above a thin, soft melt-freeze crust, with facets on both sides of the crust. As we gained elevation above 11,000 ft, the snow surface was denser, with some wind texture from recent east winds, and the near surface facets are smaller (less than .5 mm) and less pronounced. These weak layers appeared to be moistening into a crust on steeper, sunnier aspects (SW aspect observed). Dug one pit in a wind sheltered, north facing slope at 10,800 feet. The 1/19 surface hoar layer (3-8mm) showed propagation, moderate initiation, 65 cm deep below a 1F slab. (ECTP19, SC)
Propagating results on surface hoar, buried 2 feet deep below a hard slab.
Narrow D2 wet slab on Gibson Ridge (E, BTL). Ran sometime in past few days.
Full depth glide avalanche. NE aspect BTL.
The stage is set for our next problematic persistent weak layers, in some places surrounding a soft crust.
Avalanches: none
Weather: Clear & warm
Snowpack: ~25-30cm refreeze last night
snowpack moist to the ground
no signs of instability
2-5cm layer of large facets and dying SH on top of MFcr, widespread
Avalanches: Northeast above treeline: A few small skier triggered and rock triggered windslabs. Sluffing in 40 degree terrain.
More loose wet activity east to south to west. An some roller balls on lower elevation northeasterly slopes. Largest observed loose wet was below treeline in the Climax Chutes
Weather: Clear and calm. In the last 24 hours the winds blew just hard enough to transport some more snow. Some ski turns and skin tracks in the alpine from yesterday, where covered back up this morning.
Snowpack: Sluffing and small windslabs were the main concern on northeast. The upper 6″ of the snowpack had very little strength and would sluff easily on steep slopes. Pulled out a few small windslabs on portions of the slope with some wind effect. These broke as a slab up to a food deep and ran like loose snow avalanches.
Traveled on SE mainly before it had thawed and after it had started to refreeze. So little observed info there.
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Small rock triggered windslab on the left. Loose dry snow avalanche debris piles below. Northeast Aspect.
Avalanches: D1 wet loose in Needle and Thread. (SW aspects N/ATL).
Weather:
Snowpack: Some crusts did not soften as fast as expected. 70 East gloppy by 12:15, UUWW moist->wet by 2 pm. Crust under the new snow staying firm.
Avalanches: Sluffs and small avalanches aplenty. Natural main bowl of Coney’s (see photo). West face of Gothic main gully small release pulled out 50 yards below summit that ran the entire gully but did not entrain deeper pack, remained new snow only. Plenty of sluffs out of NE facing cliffs on Schyukill Peak. Plenty of sluffs below treeline on NE aspects and one pocket on NE aspect at treeline (see photo) but none of them dug deeper into the pack
Weather: awesome
Snowpack: Ski pen 6 inches with surface hoar forming.
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IMG_3484Avalanches: None
Weather: Suns out guns out
Snowpack: No superficial signs of instability while skinning and skiing slopes up to 35º. However, there is a new weak layer growing on the open slopes of Snodgrass, as highlighted by ZG’s observation on 2.14.17–
” …thin layer of low density stellar dendrites above the soft melt-freeze crusts at the surface. This layer will quickly facet into our next weak layer over the next few days on shadier aspects where it doesn’t get cooked.”
This is indeed occurring on the shaded, NE slopes of Snodgrass. The layer is about 1.5″ thick in most places, with grains about 2-3mm (didn’t have ruler). It’s widespread on open slopes but mostly absent in the trees.
Avalanches:
Weather: Blue bird and calm.
Snowpack:
IMG_0538Avalanches: R2 D2 above treeline in the northeast facing Green Lake Bowl. Looked to have run in the last couple days.
Some loose wet activity on east to south to west aspects. Nothing to impressive or surprising that I could see.
Weather: Big ball of fire with a blue background. Light northeast winds above treeline
Snowpack: Southeast
1/10 interface was down about 25cm’s at 11,350 and down about 60cm’s just below ridegline at 12,390, both on southeast slopes. No CT result at that interface at the lower elevation, and informal hand column didn’t produce a sheer on the interface at the higher elevation. At the 11,350 pit, CTH RP on some rounding faceted particles above a melt freeze crust down 65cm. Light winds kept the snow surface mostly cool above treeline. Snow was warmed and shmoo like at near treeline elevations. By the time we were below treeline on an easterly facing slope the snow surface had already started to cool at 3pm.
Northeast
Steep northeasterly slopes near 11,500 (NTL elevation) had very low density new snow over the old snow interface in some places and wind texture in others. In areas without wind texture sluffing was the main observed concern.
Small loose snow avalanches on an easterly NTL aspect.
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R2 D2 above treeline in the northeast facing Green Lake Bowl. Looked to have run in the last couple days.
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