Avalanches:
Weather: Overcast skies (OVC) nearly all day. Winds Moderate to Intense at times on the ridge, had periods of S 1 snow. Did not amount to much, Morning temp was – 1 c but felt much cooler due to winds.
Snowpack: We got shooting cracks and multiple collapses on our tour up to the ridge. We went up on the west side of coney’s. Skied a lap on the lower angle ridge next to our skin track. Also skied a lap in more of the center of coney’s (2nd Bowl) The skiing was really good. There were only 2 other skiers out there.
Height of snow 83 cm. We had easy results on CTE 4/7 SP tests breaking on a facet layer 40 cm down and a moderate result on an ECTP 16 SP on the same layer. We did not see any signs of instability while we were skiing.

Avalanches: A few small 8-15′ wide pockets failed within the new snow, but didn’t gain any momentum on slopes ~35° and only moved less than a foot downhill. With clearing skies in the afternoon, no natural activity was noticed in surrounding peaks.
Weather: Warmer early in the morning with temp dropping to 22° F at 9 am and staying there all day. Winds kicked in at 8 am from the SE with strong to extreme gusts, moving to the W/SW by midday. Ridgtop winds were hitting 60 mph. S5 morning snow tapered through the day with clouds lifting around 3pm.
Snowpack: 7″ new snow overnight with an additional 1″ through the day (most of it blew around/away) Very dense snow with 1.1″ of H2O. Soft slab in the morning stiffened from the wind throughout the day. New snow bonded relatively well to the old surfaces.
Quick compression tests showed mid-storm instabilities with resistant planer shears.

Avalanches: no activity seen
Weather: Increasing clouds- overcasts, moderate winds out of the south with lots of snow transport. Light to moderate snow fall, Temp of 26F
Snowpack: Shooting cracks across E slops when loaded while on skis. A quick snow pit showed an HS 78cm on a 30 degree slope with a surface of 1mm faces F-4F-1F-4F-F. Compression test results; CTM14Q1 at 52cm Dec 6th interface on 1mm facets.

ShootingCrack

CTM14Q1

Avalanches: Morning Glory: HS-ASr-R3-D3-G
Big Chute: SS-AE-R3-D2-G & SS-AE-R2-D2-G
Powder 8 Gully, Headwall: HS-AE-R3-D2-G
Headwall, Main: HS-AE-R2-D3-G

Touchy to very touchy on specific aspects and elevations. Of specific interest to our local backcountry conditions was the remote skier trigger on Morning Glory.
Weather: 5″ new, .5″ H20. Moderate winds observed, no Wx station data.
Snowpack: 17.5″ Storm total in last 7 days. HS 26″
Profile on 12/10: ECTN15 RP – Failure at 18cm
Results below typically failed on 1-1.5mm facets, stepped to ground.

Avalanches:
Weather: Snowing intermittently (graupelly), moderate NW winds blowing down valley. Warm.
Snowpack: Lots of whoomping and settling as we began up the steep start to the skin track (100 ft above road). Localized cracking within a few feet of our skis. Most prominent instabilities on a mid pack facet layer (roughly 45cm deep), failed ECT17 Q1 consistently here. The slab above this weak layer did not typically seem cohesive enough to form large slabs, but we suspected isolated pockets may be ready to trigger. This weak layer could become worrysome as the snow above it strengthens.

Also noticed occasional isolated breaks at the storm snow interface where wind loading had formed slabs.

Suspect a successful tour could have been had with proper navigation today, but the instabilities spooked us, especially while navigating unfamiliar terrain. We opted to head home.

Avalanches: D2’ish debris in the runout of East Bowl. Debris only had a dusting of snow on it, but the crown wasn’t visible in the start zone as it has been filled back in by recent wind loading. Didn’t observe the extent of the debris or crown to estimate any more details.
Weather: Snow showers ended mid-day as overcast sky became mostly cloudy for the afternoon. West/south west winds were generally light with a few stronger gusts. Snow plumes were visibility off most of the peaks during the first half of the day, then fewer in the afternoon.
Snowpack: About 8″ of new snow in the last 24hr. Dens and thicker on top on northerly slopes and softer/more uniform on southern slopes, due to wind effect. A few audible collapses on all aspects but no cracking even on suspect terrain features and on previously untraveled slopes.

North aspect at 10,700. HS 128. 13cm thick layer of facets at the ground were large (2-3mm) and striated, but appeared to have been preciously moist with more of a 4f- hardness to them. The more concerning interface was the 12/6 NSF. This interface was mixed forms .8-1mm NSF and DF. ECTP 26 SP at this interface. No other results while traveling on a number of suspect slopes with this structure. (Some of these slopes likely had previous skier traffic.)

South aspect at 11,100ft, slope 34 degrees, HS 97cm. Most concerning interface was again the 12/6 interface, crust. At the pit location this crust was 4cm thick and produced an ECTP 24 SP result on top of the interface. Where this crust was thinner, around 2cm and softer, observed several concerning collapses below this crust in rounding faceted grains. Didn’t find a theme to these thiner/softer crusts, maybe more southeasterly slopes or lower angled slopes. Never the less, no shooting cracks or results on a number of trigger points and concerning terrain features, but maybe we just didn’t push it far enough looking for a more obvious answer that didn’t need to be found.

Avalanches: No avalanches observed aside from one, 12″ deep, remotely triggered, east-facing steep rollover, BTL. Several large, booming collapses, both on uptrack and downtrack, shooting cracks near ridgeline with wind stiffened snow.
Weather: Mostly cloudy, broken skies down valley, moderate to heavy snowfall (S3) until around 1500 when skies rapidly cleared, accompanied by moderate to strong WSW wind, and intense snow transport observed at ridgeline. Temperatures between 28-30º all day.
Snowpack: Long day of breaking trail. New snow accumulation ~12″. Hard to ignore obvious upside-down snowpack structure, with heavy moist snow from this storm resting above colder, lighter density snow/ 1-2mm facets. Average snowpack depth ~70cm. Several large, booming collapses, seemed to propagate a few hundred yards. Cracking in denser, wind-stiffened snow. Moderate WNW winds were efficiently moving snow onto East-facing slopes near and above treeline. One extended column test on E facing slope, BTL, produced ECTP12 SC, 25cm above ground on 1-2mm near surface facets from cold spell.

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Avalanches: Small debris observed in Redwell Basin (D1), but otherwise, no vis of above treeline slopes. We had views of NE Schuylkill Ridge and SW Anthracite Mesa, and saw no avalanche activity.
Weather: Moderate SW ridgetop winds, with light snow transport. Pluming off of peaks. S-1 , brief periods of S2 (graupel). Mild temps, overcast skies.
Snowpack: 15 – 20 cm of new snow, mostly all cohesionless graupel, limited any storm slab concerns in wind protected areas. On NE aspects N/BTL, we broke trail and crossed a number of steep rollovers with minimal signs of instability: some minor cracking and one collapse. However, 3 out of 4 extended column tests produced moderate, propagating results, sudden collapse failures, on the Dec 6 near surface facet layer, which was below a 40 to 50 cm, 4F slab on wind sheltered slopes N/BTL. Same results on SW aspects near treeline, where the Dec 6 layer is a thin, friable crust above facets. See photos of profiles.

SW Aspect NTL

N aspect BTL

Avalanches:
Weather: Light snow and moderate wind continues. Snow density almost twice the average at about 11% water as there was 6 1/2′ new snow with 0.70″ of water. Snowpack at 23 1/2″. Currently obscured with light snow and moderate wind with gusts to 15. Temp. down to days lowest at 26F.
Snowpack: