Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack: HS averaged well over 2m. Sank 3m probe w/out hitting bottom anywhere near treeline w/ any prior loading. Shallow spots on ridges were as little as 120cm, w/ 180cm avg.

Field avg HST was 25cm @ 11,500; a bit less (~20cm) @ valley floor, and lightly redistributed above treeline, with fresh drifts up to 50cm, but still Fist hard.

The Jan 19 SH layer was very touchy on everything but due south below treeline, just no slab above it yet anywhere on our tour today. Wind loading was re-filling our skin track each lap, but still no slabbing, yet. On SE, also found a nasty crust facet combo topped w/ SH. Minor cracking observed on SE aspect near TL where HST sat on a thin crust. Cracks were going to just below the crust, breaking on the size 1mm facets below the crust on steep rolls, tilt tests and hand tests.

Today, Loose Dry was the only problem, and only over 40 degrees. Looking into the future, with more load, the Cement Creek area could have a small avalanche cycle on most aspects on the Jan 19 SH and crust/facet combos by Monday if the forecast verifies.

Avalanches:
Weather: Bad weather returns with generally moderate, steady overnight snow though light density with 5″ new and water 0.23″ (though this may be a bit short as I will not measure until 7 and the instrumentation may be an hour behind on uploading data). Snowpack at 81½”. No wind. No visibility.
Snowpack:

Avalanches: surface sluffing only on steeper pitches caused by tree bombs and from skiing, some “creep” as well on rollers but no propagation.
Weather: Snowing 2-3 inches an hour, zero wind.
Snowpack: Breaking trail through 24 inches of snow of estimated four-percent density. Five inches of new on skintrack after one lap.

Avalanches: None. A few pinwheels off the skin track after the sun made its brief appearance.
Weather: S-1 transitioning to mostly cloudy. Calm.
Snowpack: Up to 6 inches of new snow/24 hours on a sun crust.

Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack: I saw 5-12mm SH between 9,400′ and 11,400- today on open an gladed NW-E slopes, irrespective of previous snow surfaces. It had grown on old tracks, on old wind crusts on windward features, groomers and undisturbed pow surfaces with impunity. Certainly widespread on the shady side of the compass near and below TL.

Avalanches: Skier triggered two D1 sluffs in the surface snow that travelled surprisingly far.
Weather: Increasing clouds throughout the day from clear to overcast with light snow beginning late in the afternoon. Generally calm winds with some light winds developing in the afternoon.
Snowpack: The surface hoar was present everywhere we travelled. Practically all aspects B/NTL including ridge tops. Did not travel ATL. On northerly aspects the SH was generally .5-2 cm in size, even in densely wooded areas, and in protected spots it was up to 3 cm in size with stunning crystals. On southerly aspects the SH was generally .5-1 cm in size and often sitting on a thin crust. At lower elevations in the valley, on flat and southerly aspects, the SH crystals were not as well formed but still present. Did not travel in densely wooded southerly aspects. With snow beginning at the end of the tour, the SH was almost certainly buried and preserved.

Avalanches: Surface hoar/near surface facet sluffs on steep northerly aspects at 12,000ft.
Weather: Clear and calm throughout the morning. Sky’s transitioning to overcast around 1pm. S1 starting at 4:30pm.
Snowpack: Oooo surface hoar, you suck. Fairly widespread surface hoar beginning to be buried late this afternoon.. Looked to be cooking off on steep southerly aspects, but maybe not fully cooked. On south surface hoar had formed over a soft crust, on northerly aspects the surface hoar was forming over near surface facets.

South west aspect, surface hoar over a soft crust

IMG_2097

Northeasterly aspect at 12,000ft, surface hoar has formed over near surface facets.

IMG_2091

Avalanches:
Weather: Sunny skies and cool temps (no batts in the ol thermometer, but skinning in more layers than usual). Calm winds with a minor amount of blowing snow at ridge tops observable up toward the White Widow couloir.
Snowpack: No digging due to a bad back and late start (1200), but boot pen is less than Will’s ob from 1/15, at 25 cms. Settlement cones look to be about a foot tall on the Aspens in the valley. Roller balls off the West face of Gothic (and a skinner up with no tracks on the Spoon or W Face- hope one of you folks got on the East today!). HS at the top of the bowl was 240+. Some Southerly aspects picked up a weak crust (infer frowny face emoji).
The star of the show was widespread Surface Hoar everywhere, from the valley floor to ridge top. Up to 2 cms in size, and present even on sunnier Eastern aspects. The fog seems to have left us a present and I hope it deteriorates before the next round of weather. Keep your heads on a swivel out there friends!

Avalanches: Many loose snow avalanches on both sunny and shady aspects from small cornice failures and running from trees/rocks. Most of these were a day old (1/16/17). One of these stepped down to a slab on a lower eastern flank of redwell basin.
Weather: Foggy in the morning at the Kebler Pass TR. Climbed out of the clouds and into the sunshine for the rest of the day. Clouds lingered to the south and in valley bottoms. Fairly warm (25-30 F) on the way up to gunsight pass from. Cooler on shady aspects (20 F). No snow. Winds light and variable but seemed to be mostly out of the southeast.
Snowpack: Moist snow surface on sunny aspects all the way up to 12000 ft. Widespread surface hoar (some of it large) on all of the aspects we traveled on. I assume these will get baked off on sunny sides but they may persist on sheltered and shady aspects if they get buried.

IMG_2152

IMG_2149

Avalanches: Where do we live?! Glide cracks on Whetstone and reported around east brush
Weather:
Snowpack:

IMG_0526