Repeat offender

CB Avalanche Center February 17, 20212020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 02/17/2021
Name: Steve Banks

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: RLG
Aspect: North, South East
Elevation: 9800-11800

Avalanches: Looks the the “Spade” on the north side of Whetstone ran again Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. See photo.

Weather: Sunny am with increasing clouds and overcast by noon. Warm-ish with minimal wind

Snowpack: Dry, supportive, fun! Seems like we have developed a snowpack finally. Still variable but mostly supportive to skis. No collapsing or crack while on the established skin track. Hints of a sun crust on SE-S facing slopes but mostly cold, dry snow.

Photos:

NW Mountains Avy Photos

CBAC February 17, 20212020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 02/17/2021
Name: Evan Ross Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Slate River
Elevation: 9,000-12,000

Avalanches: There were two notable avalanche events from the last 24 hours. A pair of deep and wide propagating avalanches, above treeline, on an E-SE facing ridge of Treasury Mountain. Call it a couple of D3’s. The other avalanche in the last 24hr was a soft slab avalanche, NE facing terrain, above treeline, off scarps ridge, D2. These avalanches probably release yesterday evening during the period of increased winds.

Otherwise, there are loads of D2-D3 avalanches. The noticeable ones would have all released roughly between 2/12 and 2/14. We’ll just round it to Saturday 2/13 and lump them into last weekend’s natural avalanche cycle. These were all persistent slab avalanches releasing deeply into the snowpack and some propagating very wide across terrain features.

Of other particular note was all the avalanche activity on the west and southwest side of Anthracite Mesa. Some of those avalanches have been previously reported. In summary, there are about 5 D2’s and a few other D1.5’s on NTL type terrain.

Unfortunately by the time we got to a good vantage point flat light was setting in. So many crowns are hard to see in photos.

Weather: Calm winds. Clear sky became overcast in the afternoon.

Snowpack: Didn’t find the same recent snow totals out the slate and on the flanks of Baldy, that were recently reported from Irwin. Around 4″ of new snow on a soft crust was common in that area. While the overall feel was much deeper given the lovely consistent snowfall we’ve seen lately. We observed one good collapse, but it didn’t produce any cracking on steeper nearby slopes. Otherwise, we were traveling on a constantly deep snowpack greater than 150cm’s and didn’t notice any signs of instability.

: Purple Ridge

: Purple Palace Area

: Lower Purple Ridge Area

: 2 fresh avalanches on a SE to E ridge of Treasury Mountain. These avalanches are much deeper than they look in this photo and much wider than this view allows. Each in the D3 category.

: Fresh soft slab off Scarps Ridge

: One of the avalanches on the westerly side of Anthracite Mesa

: Poor light. Crown lines on the south side of Cinnamon with the resulting avalanche making it to the Slate River, Crowns low on the easterly face, and the wide propagating crowns on the ridge of Treasure in the background.

: The toe of the avalanche debris that were previously reported on the SE to S bowl of Mt Baldy.

: East Face of Richmond

: Several wide Crowns from Purple on over to Augusta.

: East Face Mt Baldy

Gothic 7am Weather Update

CBAC February 17, 20212020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 02/17/2021
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Weather: Very light, dense off and on snow Wednesday and into the night before clearing and much colder. There was 1½” new snow with SWE of 0.14″. Snowpack continues to settle and is at 52½”. Currently clear and with with the high 28F, the low -10 and current -09. Wind is calm. The snow is setting up faster now.

West Side Gothic Avalanches

CB Avalanche Center February 16, 20212020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 02/16/2021
Name: Ian Havlick

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Coneys with visibilitiy to surrounding backcountry
Aspect: North East, East, South West, West
Elevation: 9000-11,200

Avalanches: Fresh D2+ avalanche west facing Gothic. Impressive propagation and crown depth zig zagging into treed terrain and skipping over terrain features. Debris ran long into runout, though not to historic trim lines. Looked to have failed as a storm slab or windslab above treeline and propagated horizontally at near treeline elevation. Observed a number of other D2 sized pockets in obscure undulating terrain near rock Creek and Elkton, though visbility was poor enough to prevent good photos. These smaller slides (<5) failed on south to southeast facing terrain BTL.

Also, observed D2+ avalanches on NW facing Double Top in Brush Creek as well as D2 avalanche on SW facing slopes above Deer Creek.

Weather: snow showers, bried S2. Accumulations <3″ in Washington Gulch, though multi day storm totals in the 24″ range.

Snowpack: increasing depth to ~120-140cm, still weak facets near ground. New snow pasted, generally right side up density strucutre.

Photos:

Deer Creek

CBAC February 16, 20212020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 02/16/2021
Name: Evan Ross Zach Kinler

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Deer Creek
Aspect: North East, East, South East
Elevation: 9,000-10,600

Avalanches: Whetstone Mountain had a fresh large avalanche on the flank of the M Face. ENE aspect at 11,400ft. Wind-loading off the ridge likely added the extra load for this avalanche to release today.

2 notable avalanches in the Deer Creek area that haven’t yet been reported. These both ran around last Friday/Saturday. They both released on weak faceted snow about 40cm’s off the ground. Small PSa on an East Aspect at 10,400ft. A large PSa on a NE aspect at 10,500ft. That large PSa had a crown height of 6 feet or 2 meters!! Of course it has some extra wind-loading but this was a below treeline slope.

A couple wide propagating persistent slabs on the NE side of MT CB at 9,600ft. Not sure if those are related or CBMR operations or naturals.

Weather: Mostly cloudy sky, with orographic clouds rolling through and producing snow. An inch or 2 of new snow accumulation today, onto of about 2 to 3 inches from last night. Calm to light winds.

Snowpack: We were shooting for a shallower snowpack to check on the Persistent Slab Sensitivity. We found the snowpack height we were looking for, but we sure didn’t mind much for a reactive PSa. We traveled in areas with an average HS of 80 to 120cm. Below about 9,800ft the snowpack was mostly unsupportable unless there was old wind board or a good crust. Near and above 10,000ft there was a cohesive slab sitting above a weak faceted base. We got one good rumbling collapse with some extra effort, otherwise nothing, quiet. The PSa structure was clearly identifiable, but the sensitivity of the problem turned out to be stubborn. We primary traveled on NE, E, SE aspects.

: Whetstone Mountain. ENE aspect, 11,400ft. D2.5

: Deer Creek. NE aspect, 10,400ft. D2. Ran last Friday/Saturday

: Deer Creek. East aspect, 10,300ft. D1.5 releasing last Friday/Saturday on the 1/19 interface. HS 115.

: A couple wide propagating persistent slabs on the NE side of MT CB at 9,600ft.

Gothic 7am Weather Update

CBAC February 16, 20212020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 02/16/2021
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Gothic

Weather: Dry Monday until a couple hours after dark. It snowed much of the night but very lightly with only 2″ new and water 0.17″. Snowpack is at 54½” deep. Currently obscured with a very light but dense snow (maybe an inch of snow all day at this rate) and wind is calm. Cool yesterday with the high 19F and low and current 10F.

The Great Wall Of Crowns

CBAC February 15, 20212020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 02/15/2021
Name: Evan Ross Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Schuylkill Ridge
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9,000-11,400

Avalanches: Not too much to add to the previously documented avalanches. The North Bowl of Peeler Peak had a wide propagating and very large avalanche that wasn’t reported. This avalanche was similar to the previously reported avalanche on the East Bowl of Peeler. Both of those crowns propagated through multiple aspects. The other unreported avalanche was rather fresh looking. It was located at 11,000ft on a west aspect of Anthracite Mesa.

Of other particular note: There were 3 very large avalanches on Skooks that were first observed on Saturday Morning 2/13. These avalanches were estimated to have run during Friday/Saturday morning increased winds, and before the winds calmed during Saturday’s storm. We checked on one in Thanksgiving Bowl. This bowl has seen a number of different avalanches this season. This particular avalanche pulled all the way back to the ridge, had a max crown height near 4 meters. It was just another very large avalanche to crush the valley in February.

Weather: Cloud cover increased by noonish to mostly cloudy high thin clouds. Still some nice light filtering through at times. Calm winds. Cool temps.

Snowpack: Schuylkill Ridge should probably be renamed the Great Wall Of Crowns by this point. We have plenty of observations of all the activity, many different avalanches, and groups of avalanches from different cycles throughout this season. We got another chance to check back in on the wall this afternoon.

Of course no obvious signs of instability. That statement mostly comes from traveling on where the snowpack is full depth and weak layers are far below, or from avalanche paths that have previously run and not redeveloped a slab. HS averaged around 165 to 185cm between 10,100ft and 10-500ft, for slopes that are mostly holding the full season snowpack. We eventually skied an avalanche path that ran on 2/5 and had about 50cm’s of snow loaded back on the bed surface.

: A very resilient stand of little trees.

: These sharp crowns in Thanksgiving Bowl are from a D3 avalanche estimated before sunrise 2/13. Plenty of past activity in this bowl too.

: The 2/13 D3 in Thanksgiving Bowl crown pulled all the way back to the ridge, 4.5 meters deep.

: Another wide propagating crown on Skooks estimated before sunrise 2/13

: A fresh crown on a west aspect of Anthracite Mesa

: A portion of the very large and widely propagating crown on Peeler Peak’s north bowl.

Cement Mtn Snow/Slides

CB Avalanche Center February 15, 20212020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 02/15/2021
Name: Cosmo Langsfeld

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Cement Mtn
Aspect: North, West, North West
Elevation: 9200-10000

Avalanches: Big north bowl on Cement Mtn (horse basin) looks to have slid before or during the last storm, maybe wall to wall. Could see outline of crowns beneath new snow (no good picture). Wasn’t high enough to see far lookers right of bowl, the east/northeast facing slopes, but everything lookers left of that went.

Weather: Sunny and clear overhead, but looked cloudy everywhere else around. Cold in the wind. Warm in the sun.

Snowpack: Trapdoors in the valley bottom. Largely supportive above 9400′, but you can usually punch through if you jump on it. True northern facing and shady stuff is still mostly facets. Too many collapses to count. Some of them rumbling away from me for a few seconds after the initial collapse. All supportive snow was suspect. Some snow depths: 60cm in northwest facing aspens @ 9400′, 75-90cm on W-NW terrain 9600-10000′. One southwest facing slope @ 9600′ was 25-35cm with a 3-4″ crust sandwiched between new snow from Friday-Saturday above and facets below and a new crust forming on top (no collapses on this southerly terrain, but I also didn’t spend much time on it).