Avalanches: Numerous large natural avalanches observed around the Ruby Range that ran sometime in the past 24 hours, on various aspects near and above treeline. Unknown failure layers, crowns generally appeared to be 2 to 4 feet thick, D2 to D2.5 in size. A lot of crowns and debris piles were smoothed over by wind and snow and hard to recognize. The most impressive was a crown across Mt. Owen’s East face, at least 1500′ wide and appeared to be 8+ feet deep in places, D3 in size.   See photos.
Weather: Temps dropped through the day to 8F. Broken skies. S-1. Light winds, with a few short-lived moderate gusts.
Snowpack: Storm board: 26″ (3.85″ SWE). 1″ during the day today.
Wind transport and settling new snow has made the upper snowpack stiffer and supportive. Ski pen only ~6″ today. We primarily traveled on heavily boot packed, ski trafficked, and explosively mitigated terrain, with minimal signs of instability. In low angle areas facing S, SW that had not seen packing or explosives, we got 3 large collapses.

D1. SE aspect NTL

D2. SE aspect Purple Peak

D2.5 E aspect of Mt. Owen

D2.5 debris pile below south face of Mt. Owen

1500’+ wide crown on Mt Owen, NE to SE face. Looks 8’+ deep. D3

D2. South aspect of Peeler Peak

D1.5(?). South aspect of Peeler Peak.

Avalanches: Large naturals on Belleview , Whetstone, White Mtn (Zachary’s path)
Weather:
Snowpack:

Avalanches: BTL on N-E aspects several small road cuts’ came out’ with ski cuts and explosives failing on the ground in terrain over 38 degrees. In terrain under 38 degrees, failure occurred in the upper 20 cm of the pack on graupel layer.

ATL NNE aspect 11,500-11,300 Big Chute/Paradise Cliffs:2x HS-AE-R3-D2-O/G. These slides were stubborn to trigger but when tested with explosives produced failures to the ground in terrain steeper than 35 degrees.
Weather: P/C
Snowpack: In the East River sector of CBMR: Depth of snow 80-110cm. New snow (40-60cm) sitting on top of a variety of facets. A graupel layer 20 cm down was the reactive problem layer of the morning BTL on N-E aspects. Lots of collapsing and cracking. Some cracks were depth of snow pack where the wind effected the slope, all in the top 20 cm of the snowpack.

Avalanches: I could hear slides yesterday but as none hit me I did not see anything. The wind will accelerate the slide activity but should also help snow set up a bit faster. Once (if?) we get some visibility again I will let you know what I see.
Weather: Oh my. The unheard of (for here) dense snow continued with 12″ new snow and water of 1.14″. The snow substantially let up in the afternoon and then stopped, though light overnight. But after sunset the wind took over with steady 15-20 W gusting in the 30’s until slowing don around 2-3 a.m. Snowpack at 43½” as currently obscured cloud cover with very light snow and light wind.

This makes day 21 in a row with just 1 clear or partly cloudy day, and it is OLD. billy
Snowpack:

Avalanches: Widespread shooting cracks at all elevations and aspects up and down. All of this and the following was in the storm snow, no evidence of activity further down in the snowpack until the end of the tour:
Intentionally triggered by ski cut r2d1 slide in rock. Ski cuts on big produced widespread cracking and r1d1. Natural r2d1 in big looked like it ran late in the overnight storm. Skier triggered r2d1 on the last convexity in big, not surprising. Remote triggered r1d1 slide on the south aspect from the ridge.
multiple natural r1d1.5 slides on the northeast aspect wrapping back around toward friendly finish, appeared to go late in the overnight storm. It looked like the face above friendly finish that often rips has not yet, so it’s probably ripe to go.
Weather: blowing wind and snow, s-3 and maybe more – 5 inches on the car and sleds after 4 hours out in the morning
Snowpack: New snow 14-16 inches, plus the 5 or so that fell during the morning. Consistent midstorm instability 4-6 inches down, 8 or more inches down by the end of the tour. Didn’t investigate closely, maybe due to upside down heavy morning snow on top of lighter snow during the night?

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Avalanches: Widespread storm slab instability cracking and sliding 15cm deep, full width running 3/4 to full track. Mostly D1’s w/ a couple D1.5’s
Weather: Snowy & Blowy. HST 16″ w/ 1.8″ SWE at 16:00 and still snowing.
Snowpack:

Avalanches: Watched a power cloud hit the willows at the upper valley transition below the East Face of Gothic. Poor visibility, D2.5-3 estimate.
Weather: Snow intensity decreased throughout the day. S2 becoming s-1 by 3-4pm. Generally light winds in valley. Extreme gusts developing at 5pm and temps dropping.
Snowpack: Didn’t really get off the road. Didn’t observe anything significant on this front.

Avalanches: Very little margin for error in terrain selection today.
Below treeline, we observed widespread natural storm slab avalanches and skier triggered a handful, all small in size. SS-N/ASc-R1-D1/1.5-S
Near treeline, we observed two large natural persistent slabs, 2 to 3 feet deep, failing on facets near the ground. One on a NE aspect and one on a SE aspect. SS-N-R2-D2.5-O. We also remotely triggered 2 large persistent slab avalanches from ridgelines ~1-4 feet deep on the ground, one of which was triggered by a remote cornice fall. NE and N aspects near treeline. Debris ran far into flats and snapped numerous small trees. SS-ASr-R2-D2/2.5-O. Video to come.
Weather: Pacific northwest!! S2 most of the day with stronger pulses at time. Light winds below treeline, strong to extreme winds above treeline from NW and SW. Intense snow transport during gusts. Warm.
Snowpack: 45cm of dense, new snow over well-documented PS structure, weak snow near the ground. Ski pen ~shin to knee deep. Lots of moderate collapsing, a few large collapses on various aspects. Widespread cracking on a density difference (stellar dendrites) mid storm, about 20 to 25 cm deep.

Spiderweb cracks BTL

Natural persistent slab. Climax chutes

Small natural storm slabs.

Natural persistent slab, SE aspect NTL. Coon Basin

Natural persistent slab, SE aspect NTL. Coon Basin

Remotely triggered cornice fall/ persistent slab avalanche. NE aspect of Coon Basin.

Remotely triggered cornice fall/ persistent slab avalanche. NE aspect of Coon Basin.

Remotely triggered cornice fall/ persistent slab avalanche. NE aspect of Coon Basin.

Remotely triggered persistent slab avalanche. N aspect of Coon Basin.

Avalanches:
Weather: The mechanical water read-out from 5 a.m. was late to record the data so the water equivalent I gave earlier was low. So the 24 hour total (14 hours really since it started at 5) is 11 1/2″ new snow with 1.00″ of water. Snowpack at 33″. Wind is starting to pick up a little but still light at 2-4 SW but some gusts are just starting up. Snow is letting up a little as well. Temp. holding steady at 28F. No visibility. billy
Snowpack: