Date of Observation: 02/25/2021
Name: Eric Murrow & Ben Pritchett

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Cement Creek drainage to head of valley near Tilton
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South, South West, West, North West
Elevation: 9,000 – 11,600′

Avalanches: Observed a good number of previously unreported avalanches from the last significant loading event around February 13th or later from wind-loading. Below treeline there were a few natural avalanches on east through north features. Near and above treeline previous avalanche activity was observed on west, northwest, north, northeast, east, southeast, south and southwest aspects. Wind-loading was able to overload weak structures around the compass at upper elevations. Many of these avalanches were in terrain features that were frequent runners, but several of the avalanches were in paths that have not run in many years. Continue to expect the unexpected.
Weather: Clear skies, light winds in valley bottom, and mild temperatures. No snow transport observed
Snowpack: We observed a mostly quiet snowpack. Two small collapses, one that produced localized cracks. Lower down in the valley, the snowpack remains mostly faceted, without well-developed slabs. In these areas, if a storm delivers a rapid load of new snow wide spread avalanching like what was seen in mid February could be expected again. For now, it’s just weak, poor structure, with little avalanche concern except where slabs are built in wind-drifted features. Further up in the valley, from around 10,500′ upwards, the mid-pack slabs are much more mature, thicker, and dangerous if triggered. Basal weak layers connect across terrain features. Propagation potential remains high, and potential avalanche size remains large. The upper snowpack is a mix of very stiff wind board and wind slab, as well as numerous melt freeze crusts, with thin layers of facets laminated in between. The upper snowpack slabs are generally stiff. The weak layers are fairly discontinuous. Together that adds to a picture where triggering has grown stubborn in this area; that said, the consequences remain scary. We chose to travel under some paths that avalanche recently and had not refilled, and chose to alter our route to avoid some paths that had not yet run.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 02/24/2021
Name: Alex Tiberio

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Gothic

Photos:

Date of Observation: 02/23/2021
Name: Jack Caprio and Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: North Cement Mountain
Aspect: North, North East, East, West, North West
Elevation: 9,000′-12,200

Avalanches: Observed a number of avalanches on Cement Mountain of varying ages from the past month.  Included images for avalanches that likely failed around the Feb 13/14 time frame.  Most of these avalanches failed on drifted features with two below treeline on non-drifted slopes.  Looking around leeward features in Southeast Mountains did not see any other recent avalanches.  While driving pavement in afternoon, I spotted a couple very small loose avalanche on Gothic Mountain coming out of steep, rocky southerly features.
Weather: A cold early morning in the canyon quickly gave way to warm, sunny weather. Above treeline, W and NW winds blew at consistent moderate speeds with high gusts.

Snowpack:  Toured up and over Cement Mountain.  This is a relatively shallow snowpack area as it is in the Southeast Mountains and receives less snow volume than other areas in Southeast Mountains due to its location.

Below 10k, the snowpack consisted of generally 80 cms of thin crust/ facet combos. When HS was less than around 80 cm, ski pen was to the ground. As we increased in elevation to about 10K-ish, HS increased above 80 cms to around 100cm and the snowpack thankfully began to support the weight of a skier while breaking trail. We didn’t get any alarming signs of instability as we were making our way up through the trees on N aspects below treeline.

As we got near and above treeline, we continued to see W and N winds transport snow onto leeward start zones. A snowpit test on a slightly windloaded, NE-facing aspect near treeline produced moderate propagating results. We did get one large rumbling collapse while traveling on ridgeline, adjacent to the NE facing start zones. The collapse did not produce any cracks but it was loud enough to hear over the blustering winds. Much of the avalanche paths we traveled above had already slid during the last 3 weeks. Most of the bed surfaces had not refilled enough to slide again. We chose not to ski any of the slopes that had previously avalanched because of the low quality of skiing, not necessarily avalanche hazard.  Briefly touched a few below treeline sunny slopes that were moist but not wet enough to cause Wet Loose concerns due to winds keeping surfaces relatively cool.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 02/22/2021
Name: Cosmo Langsfeld

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Middle cement creek
Aspect: East
Elevation: ~10k’

Avalanches: Small, fresh looking crown on same path that slid across cement creek road a little while back. Photo from Monday afternoon.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 02/21/2021
Name: jeff banks

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: gothic road at S curve
Aspect: South East
Elevation: 9550

Avalanches: none
Weather: howling & cold all day, heavy transport drifting upslope from NE and loading top of California bowl (transport from the bottom) forming a new ~3ft cornice @ 10,800 on the blunt ridge in a break in the trees
Snowpack: 1 medium whumpf in heavily ski tracked conifer forest above weather station plot meadow @ 10,700

Propagation on PST X 2 on Gothic Road SE @ 9550
45/100 END down 70cm Failed on 4mm FC F hard 20cm above ground interface w/ MFCR Knife to 1F slab HS 100cm
40/110 END Same-Same