October 16, 2021

CBAC featured in Backcountry Magazine

The CBAC is featured in this month’s Backcountry Magazine, in an article that highlights the history and current operations of our local avalanche center.  You can read the issue here.

 

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Your observations are critical to an accurate avalanche forecast product! Please send the CBAC any photos, trip reports, near misses, storm totals in your area, etc. You could save a life.

May. 23, 2023

More wet slabs on Whetstone

Date of Observation: 05/21/2023
Name: Turner Peterson

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Whetstone

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: More whetstone NE/E wet slabs lake bowl

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May. 18, 2023

Large wet slides below Scarp Ridge

Date of Observation: 05/18/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Scarp Ridge, viewed from Snodgrass TH

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A pair of large wet avalanches ran sometime since I had views of that area yesterday at noon. They appear to be cornice-triggered wet slabs

Photos:

6270

May. 17, 2023

More wet slab activity on Whetstone

Date of Observation: 05/17/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: M Face on Whetstone. Viewed from Mt. CB

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Another fresh wet slab on Whetstone. M Face ran sometime this afternoon.

Photos:

6269

May. 17, 2023

Shallow freeze on Gothic

Date of Observation: 05/17/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Peak, traveled on southerly and easterly aspects to 12,600′

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: The bulk of recent avalanches have been D1-1.5 wet loose on northerly aspects N/ATL, where the snow is still in a transitional phase.
Weather: Scarp Ridge (@12k) had a minimum temp of 37 last night under clear skies. Mountain temps rose to the mid 40’s to mid 50’s, with partly cloudy skies developing by mid day. Calm winds where we traveled.
Snowpack: About 5″ refreeze which was just enough for mostly supportive boot pen and supportive ski pen before sunrise. Good corn around 8:30 a.m. on easterly aspects. Once crusts broke down later in the morning, ski pen became trapdoor near rocky areas and trees. It was easy to trigger small wet loose avalanches, but they didn’t gain volume; just ran slowly down existing runnels. Cornices are still big and saggy looking; we chose routes that avoided being underneath them given the warm day.

Photos:

6268

May. 16, 2023

Wet slabs Barcelona Bowl

Date of Observation: 05/16/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Whetstone. Viewed from town.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches:  Two large wet slabs ran today, adjacent to but independent of each other in Barcelona Bowl, probably cornice triggered.
Weather:
Snowpack:

Photos:

6267

May. 12, 2023

April wet slab activity from West Brush and Copper Creek

Date of Observation: 05/10/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Copper Creek and West Brush Creek areas, viewed from Whiterock

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous previously undocumented D2 to D3 wet slabs likely ran during our April 9 to April 13 wet cycle. I coded their failure dates during the peak of the cycle 4/10 – 4/11, although I suspect activity was distributed across a wider date range than that.

Photos:

6265

May. 12, 2023

April wet slab activity from Copper Creek

Date of Observation: 05/10/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Copper Creek area

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous previously undocumented D2 to D3 wet slabs likely ran during our April 9 to April 13 wet cycle. I coded their failure dates during the peak of the cycle 4/10 – 4/11, although I suspect activity was distributed across a wider date range than that.

Photos:

6264

May. 12, 2023

Dust on crust and a recent wet slab

Date of Observation: 05/12/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Mt. Axtell 4th Bowl

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A recent-looking large wet slab in Evan’s Basin. I’m guessing it ran sometime in the past few days.
Weather: Partly cloudy skies. Light northeast winds.
Snowpack: Less than 1″ of new snow above 10k, with isolated drifts up to 5″ from northeasterly winds ATL. Marginal refreeze due to last night’s cloud cover and insulating new snow, but the snow surface remained supportive under skis with good corn-like skiing through 9:30 a.m on northeast aspects. No signs of instability this morning.

Photos:

6263

May. 09, 2023

Pow, corn, and wet loose on White Rock

Date of Observation: 05/09/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Red Ridge to Queen Basin to Whiterock Mtn

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered and observed a few fresh natural wet loose avalanches on high, north-facing terrain up to D1.5 in size.
Numerous previously undocumented wet slabs from the April cycle, D2-D3. I’ll document those in a separate ob later this week.
Weather: Clear to few clouds, warm temps, light breeze.
Snowpack: Wet loose avalanches became reactive to ski cuts by mid day on ATL northerly terrain, where the top 6″ of dry powder was just now transitioning to wet snow. Elsewhere, the snow surface has matured through numerous melt-freeze cycles and wet loose avalanches appeared to be unreactive, even on steep terrain late in the day. The snow surface remained supportive to skis through 4 p.m. at all elevations except for a few spots near evergreen trees below treeline.

6262

May. 07, 2023

Powder in them hills – rain on the beach

Date of Observation: 05/07/2023
Name: Chris Martin

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Today we traveled up Purples SE ridge to the top of the S couloirs and descended the couloirs with careful evaluation of snow totals and slab cohesion, with techniques that mitigated our exposure.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Dry loose, slow running

Weather: Low visibility, Light-Moderate winds and blowing snow. Cold.

We decided after last weeks warmup to wait for weather stations to reveal the refreeze this weekend and the cold temps that persisted throughout yesterday and today gave us the confidence to push into the alpine for today. The refreeze remains minimal below 2′ down on South Aspects.

Snowpack: 6-8″ of wind blown snow on top of a MfCr. We observed minimal and shallow cracking that remained local to the tips of our skis. The new snow seems to be bonding quite well to the old crust.

We observed pockets of deeper wind transported snow, we did not encounter anywhere these totals were connective across an entire slope as a recipe for propagation.

While traveling we also noticed the warm up from last week in the snowpack. Specifically on South aspects the freeze penetrated about 2 feet down from the past freezing temps since the morning of 5/4 and snow was moist/wet below that.

6261

Apr. 30, 2023

Large avalanche off Mt Owen

Date of Observation: 04/30/2023
Name: Insta Gram

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Ruby Peak.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Large slab avalanche off Mt Owen, with debris to Green Lake. Appeared to be cornice triggered.

Photos:

6258

Apr. 29, 2023

Still seeing NE isolated Wind Slab Activity

Date of Observation: 04/29/2023
Name: Turner Petersen

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Sledded up wash gulch and skied Quigley Creek Bowl and then the east bowl on Baldy with Syd and Sam.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Still seeing isolated NE Wind Slabs. Second skier triggered a small pocket. Turned to slow loose wet toward bottom. Ran maybe 400’.
Weather: Sunny. Warm. Winds from the NW.
Snowpack:

Photos:

6256

Apr. 28, 2023

Wet collapses and a couple small skier triggered slides

Date of Observation: 04/28/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Upper Slate and Yule Pass areas. Traveled mostly on easterly and northerly aspects to 12,600′

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: On north-facing terrain ATL, I skier triggered a thin wind slab (~6″ x 8′) and a loose dry avalanche that both ran about 800′ (D1s).
Wednesday’s sunny weather after the storm spurred a wet shed cycle around the compass except for high northerlies. These were mostly wet loose, D1-1.5, and a handful of slabs up to D2. Not sure if they were moistening storm slabs or wet slabs; the debris looked fairly wet.
Weather: Clear, unseasonably cool temps. Moderate northwest winds were blowing the 1″ of new snow around with small plumes off of high peaks.
Snowpack: 1″ of new overnight and winds formed isolated, thin wind slabs ATL. These appeared to be bonding well on solar aspects; got one to pop on a crossloaded north facing slope. There’s up to 10″ or so of recent storm snow from the Tuesday night storm which hasn’t fully transitioned yet and could continue to produce more wet loose activity this weekend, especially to human triggers. At 1 p.m. while skinning up Yule Creek (~10k’, fairly flat terrain), we were getting widespread collapses on the dust layer, which was about 6″ to 8″ deep and saturated. Most collapses were a ski length or two wide, but some produced shooting cracks up to 30′ or 40′. This suggests there is potential for thin wet slabs this weekend as well, similar in character to the avalanches on Schuylkill Ridge shown below.

Photos:

6255

Apr. 28, 2023

Skier triggered slab on Owen

Date of Observation: 04/28/2023

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Mt. Owen, north side ATL

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered a soft slab. See photo.

Photos:

6254

Apr. 26, 2023

Small long running wind slab M face

Date of Observation: 04/26/2023
Name: Turner Petersen

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Skied the M face on Whetstone with Tom Rob and Dan.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: We kicked the top cornice which produced a very isolated and small wind slab that entrained any available surface snow on a stout north crust. Ran 1000′.
Weather: Sunny. Winds from the NW.
Snowpack: 5′ of new snow on a firm glazed north crust.

Photos:

[/gravityforms]
6253

Apr. 25, 2023

Lil Spooks on Skooks

Date of Observation: 04/25/2023
Name: Whitney Gilliam

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Skooks main skinner!

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: Cloudy, warm, off and on precip
Snowpack: Noticed lots of water in the snowpack ~1ft+ down in the snowpack while breaking trail… hard to say if it was because of rain or a poor freeze. Didn't think too much of it, but near the skooks bench I experienced two large wumphs/collapses and decided to turn around :)

6252

Apr. 22, 2023

AMR storm instabilities

Date of Observation: 04/22/2023
Name: Mark And Turner

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: AMR, playground

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Intentional windlip/cornice triggered small storm slab south anthracites which ran full track. Video on insta, freeze frame below.

Ski triggered thin wind slab east facing top of y chute which ran 500 ft or so. See photos.

Skied north facing below tree line with no other signs of instability

Weather: Intermittently heavy snow and sun, with some afternoon graupel. Light winds, cool air temps

Photos:

6251

Apr. 22, 2023

Earth Day was too hot for the powder day

Date of Observation: 04/22/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: NE-E-SE 9,500-11,500. Purple Ridge Area.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: At 1pm, wet loose avalanches were reactive on NE and E below 11,300ft. These were generally small, but where they could run and accumulate mass they became large in size. We skier triggered several small wet avalanches and one become large in size. Another party had triggered more wet avalanches in similar terrain.

Weather: Convective snow showers with some moderate winds and drifting snow during those periods. The greenhouse was in full effect.

Snowpack: Recent storm totals were around 20 to 25cm at 11,000ft. Less snow at lower elevations and more snow at higher elevations… On the lee side of Purple Ridge, the drifts were a couple of feet thick. It was difficult to assess how far the thicker drifts extended into the slopes below. Wind slabs felt stubborn, but there was a notable lower-density layer of snow near the bottom of the drifts.

Snow surfaces become moist to wet on the sunny aspects, and thick/moist on northerlies BTL.

Photos:

6250

Apr. 19, 2023

Kebler storm check in

Date of Observation: 04/19/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Kebler Pass road up to Scarp Ridge.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: none
Weather: Light snowfall with obscured views. Strong southwest winds.
Snowpack: At 330pm, storm totals were less than 2 inches.  Snowfall rated increased as I left the area.  Strong winds blasted the snow towards leeward terrain features. The lowest-elevation terrain, below 9,500 feet, snow surfaces were soft from mild-ish temperatures but did not pose a loose avalanche threat. I dug a quick hole on a north-facing slope immediately adjacent to Crested Butte and found meltwater had drained 2+ feet into the snowpack. There was still some free water present. I do not expect this to create any avalanche concerns; I was simply checking on how deep meltwater has drained on the warmest north-facing slopes.

6248

Apr. 17, 2023

Afternoon Slate

Date of Observation: 04/17/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Baxter Basin, North to 12,000ft.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Difficult to tell if there have been more natural loose wet avalanches since yesterday. Nothing notable stood out.

Weather: Few clouds, hot, calm wind.

Snowpack: Due north was dry and provided great skiing with minor sluffing in steep terrain. Just about everything else was looking hot and not inviting in the afternoon. NE slopes had gone through a shed cycle where they were steep and rocky. Lower elevation NE slopes had a shiny appearance from a distance.

Photos:

6246

Apr. 17, 2023

More details for the 4/12 Poverty Gulch Wet Slab

Date of Observation: 04/17/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Poverty Gulch near Pittsburg.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: This avalanche was previously reported and ran on 4/12.

This wet slab was triggered by a wet loose avalanche from above. In total, it ran 800 vertical feet, though the slab only ran about 400ft. It was surprisingly destructive. In the debris there were many aspen trees, maybe 30 to 50, and there were about 10 mature pine trees. This slope had several wet loose avalanche events in the couple of weeks before it ran as this wet slab.

Photos:

6245

Apr. 17, 2023

Wet avalanche Coneys

Date of Observation: 04/16/2023

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Coneys

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Triggered on the rollover at the end of coneys. 11 am ish

Photos:

6243

Apr. 16, 2023

Small skier triggered wind slab Baxter Basin

Date of Observation: 04/16/2023
Name: Turner Petersen

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Skied 2 laps on the s tube and down to our sleds via camo glades.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Kicked off a very small wind slab maybe 15 feet wide on my entrance ski cut that ended up entraining my Sluff. Ran maybe 800ft. Wouldn’t bury you but wouldn’t be fun. Took place skiers left of s proper.
Weather: Sunny
Snowpack: Cold 7” on northerlies.

Photos:

6242

Apr. 16, 2023

Upper Slate wet loosies and wind slab.

Date of Observation: 04/16/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Purple Ridge to 12,200′. Easterly and northerly aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous small wet loose avalanches ran at all elevations, predominantly on east and southeast aspects this morning (D1s). A few reached around to NE aspects BTL. These all ran on the dust/crust layer. We skier triggered a couple of similar avalanches and observed other skier triggered slides as well. Skier triggered one hot wind slab that entrained wet loose snow on a crossloaded gulley below treeline (D1).
Weather: Light ridgetop winds, minor transport. Clear skies. Springlike temps.
Snowpack: Settled storm snow depths ranged from 4″ to 8″, notably redistributed by wind in this area.
Targeted a few windloaded test slopes and could only get localized cracking with no releases, until we got one wind slab to pop later in the day in a steep chute. Drifts were up to 2 feet thick below large fetches, but the cracking was occurring on a mid-storm layer about 6″ to 8″ deep.
Mid to high northerlies stayed dry, with wet loose activity beginning mid-morning on easterlies. The 4/14 interface stayed frozen and supportive to ski pen through midday.

Photos:

6241

Apr. 16, 2023

Slab avalanches from yesterday’s storm

Date of Observation: 04/16/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Slate River Road and Purple Ridge.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Schuylkill Ridge saw a wind slab cycle (averaging D1.5) on crossloaded terrain from Northwest winds yesterday. Several other soft slabs above treeline ran during or after the storm yesterday.

Photos:

6240

Apr. 16, 2023

A few more wet slabs from last week’s cycle

Date of Observation: 04/16/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Upper Slate area

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few more previously undocumented wet slabs. These ran sometime after Evan was in the area mid-day on 4/12, so likely the afternoon of 4/12 or sometime 4/13.

Photos:

6239

Apr. 16, 2023

Wet Loose on Gothic Little Spoon

Date of Observation: 04/16/2023
Name: Gunnar Doyle

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Started at Washington Gulch TH, made our way up the ridge to the west of the Spoon. Skied the little spoon to the lookers left of the spoon twice.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: R.5, D1 Wet Loose triggered by skier. Skier was able to ski out unharmed. The avalanche ran a few hundred feet down the terrain feature.
Weather: Sunny, no winds, 35°
Snowpack: A few inches of fresh snow from Friday night’s storm on top of a crust.

Photos:

6238

Apr. 16, 2023

Mineral point

Date of Observation: 04/15/2023
Name: Sean Feese

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Normal sled route out slate to the daisy pass area

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Ski cut one wind slab which triggered on the east face. Shallow, soft ran a few hundred vert. A handful of small windslabs released naturally. East aspect recieved sun midmorning and developed a crust when temps dropped in the afternoon. S face remained dry all day.
Weather: Partly cloudy, breezy. Light snow in the morning.
Snowpack: Overnight temps set up the old snow, though some spots near valley bottom remained wet and the snowmobile cut through. Significant wind loading all day in the alpine on easterly aspects.

Photos:

6237

Apr. 16, 2023

Walrod Gulch

Date of Observation: 04/15/2023

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Walrod gulch road, from the parking lot on cement creek road, .2 miles up the trail.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: The available appears to have run mid week during the warm up. Some of the snow/ice chunks were 2-3 feet in diameter. Some tree damage near the base of the hill. Debris stopped at the base of the hill before hitting the main trail.
Weather: Sunny and cool
Snowpack: Dust on fragile crust. About two inches of fresh snow on top of unstable crust.

Photos:

6236

Apr. 15, 2023

Cornice fall on Mt. Axtell

Date of Observation: 04/15/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Mt. Axtell Green Lake Bowl

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: D2 cornice fall above Green Lake, likely yesterday or today.

Photos:

6235

Apr. 15, 2023

Soft slabs and wet loose on Emmons

Date of Observation: 04/15/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Mount Emmons on various aspects to 12200′

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A handful of thin soft slabs and wet loose avalanches involving the new snow ran naturally or were triggered today (D1s). Most of the slabs were in wind-affected terrain, but at least one broke more like a storm slab.
Weather: Scattered cloud cover cleared by early afternoon. The alpine felt cold and wintery; moderate to strong northwest winds with periods blowing snow. Below treeline felt mild and springlike.
Snowpack: Storm totals increased from a few inches near valley floor up to 10″ above treeline. The snow appeared to be bonding well on most undrifted slopes, but I popped a shallow slab on a rollover below treeline that broke near the storm interface. Drifts averaged about a foot deep and were up to 2′ thick in heavily drifted areas. I produced localized cracking up to 5′ in drifts. I didn’t see any natural wet loose activity today but it was becoming easy to trigger at low elevations by about 1 p.m., involving the top 4″ of wetting snow over the dust/crust. Near the valley floor, that crust was breaking down this afternoon and ski pen was knee-deep on a few slopes.

Photos:

6234

Apr. 14, 2023

Weekly Snowpack Summary April 7-13, 2023

The weekly summary is here. Who turned up the thermostat? This week saw soaring temperatures and impressive wet avalanche activity.

Weekly Summary April 7-13, 2023 COMPRESSED
Apr. 13, 2023

NE wet avalanche in the Bear Claw area of Mt Wetstone

Date of Observation: 04/12/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Bear Claw

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: NE 11,000ft. A wet avalanche that gouged deeply and accumulated additional snow. Large debris pile in the apron below and not visible in the photo. Hard to tell if this avalanche was a wet loose, wet slab, or maybe started by a small cornice chunk.

Photos:

6231

Apr. 13, 2023

Washington Gulch

Date of Observation: 04/13/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Mt Baldy. NW and S.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: I didn’t notice any new avalanche activity.

Weather: Cloud cover was partly cloudy through mid-day and then increased through the afternoon. Moderate winds at upper elevations.

Snowpack: Snow surfaces were frozen and supportable near the trailhead.

Skied NW into the P-Divide bowl and didn’t leave any tracks. Realized the no tracks thing could be a fun game during times like these. The snow surface was a thin supportable crust over dry snow.

Skied the South Bowl of Baldy around 1 pm. The crust wasn’t supportable off the top and ski pin was dropping into the wet mushy snow below. This was in part because of the below-average snowpack depth that exists in the top 1/4 of the bowl. We traveled skier left where the snow surface was supportable but I could still plunge my pole into the wet snow below. The snowpack was stronger in the runout either from the old avalanche debris or the increased snowpack depth.

The snowpack was supportable on the route back to the trailhead.

Quote from Than: “Remember, If it snows tonight, we get to claim that we skied the dirtiest day of the season… so far.”

Photos:

6230

Apr. 12, 2023

Like powder, but sandier and not as deep.

Date of Observation: 04/12/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Upper Slate, Purple Ridge.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: More of the same. Mostly loose wet avalanches with some gouging deeply into the snowpack.

Weather: A little bit of everything. Cloud cover was alternating between partly cloudy and mostly cloudy. Some convective pulses pushed through and even a little rain.

Snowpack: The snowpack stayed supportive to boots through mid-day, then things felt like they were starting to deteriorate more quickly on my way home. Skiing was lovely, often grabby, and slow, and I even got chased by a pack of brown roller balls to keep it interesting. Was out to gather some equipment and didn’t tango with much avalanche terrain.

Dug into a 30-degree NE-facing slope at 10,800ft. The wetting front had made it about 40cm’s deep. It was just hitting an interface at this location. CTN in the upper snowpack. Loose wet avalanches looked like the primary hazard in this location.

Photos:

6229

Apr. 12, 2023

Backlogging a few cornice falls and older slides

Date of Observation: 04/12/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Various locations

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Adding a few more cornice falls and older avalanches observed this week to the database.
Photos:

6228

Apr. 11, 2023

A few more naturals from Beckwith, Marcillena, and more

Date of Observation: 04/11/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Kebler Pass Road

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: More large wet avalanches likely ran today or yesterday. And an older dry slab(!!!) triggered by cornice fall. See photos.

Photos:

6227

Apr. 11, 2023

Large wet avalanches in SE mtns near town

Date of Observation: 04/11/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from CB

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few large wet slabs on Gothic ran today. A few large wet avalanches on Mt. CB ran yesterday evening.

Photos:

6226

Apr. 11, 2023

Another sad day for our snowpack. More ugly wet activity from the NW Mtns

Date of Observation: 04/11/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Afternoon snowmobile tour to Scarp Ridge, Beaver Ponds TH, and Horse Ranch TH documenting wet avalanche patterns from the last few days.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: More wet action.  In summary, all of the large (D2+) avalanche activity (both wet slab and wet loose) has been happening on east, south, and west aspects, mostly near and below treeline, where meltwater is most intense right now. I saw a few wet slabs break near 12,000′ into above treeline type of terrain. These were all on rocky, shallow slopes facing SE. There’s still plenty of wet loose activity happening on NE and NW aspects but it’s still shallow and not gouging like the southern side is, and no wet slabs on the northern half of the compass thus far.
Weather: Hot.
Snowpack: A quick handpit on a 30 degree, SE facing slope at 12,000 feet this afternoon had wet snow about 6″ deep and moistening snow below that. The snowpack was generally supportive to sledding near and above treeline with track pen about 6″. It was trapdoor in a few low-elevation areas.

Photos:

6225

Apr. 11, 2023

S face Mt CB BTL

Date of Observation: 04/11/2023
Name: Turner Petersen

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: –

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Loose wet avalanche starting in complex terrain on S face of mt cb and hitting aspens at the bottom of a rarely seen slide path above the upper loop.
Weather: 53 in skyland
Snowpack: Flush the dust

Photos:

6224

Apr. 11, 2023

Gibson ridge double trouble

Date of Observation: 04/11/2023
Name: Turner Petersen

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: –

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Second hangfire wet slab east face Gibson ridge BTL
Weather: Nuclear
Snowpack: Red

Photos:

6223

Apr. 11, 2023

Flush the dust

Date of Observation: 04/11/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Morning tour into Peeler Basin, traveling mostly on northerly aspects to 12,000’

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few wet slabs on S to SE aspects NTL that ran yesterday, D1.5 to D3. Several large gouging wet loose BTL on SE and E. Plenty of shallow wet loose at all elevations (D1 to D1.5), spanning around to NE aspects at higher elevations and N BTL. More photos later tonight.
Weather: Clear, light winds. Waaaarm.
Snowpack: Marginal refreeze: punchy boot pen and supportive ski pen at 9 am. Felt like the window for good corn on SE was about 9:30 NTL. Still dry powder on high due north; Northeast ATL started rollerballing this morning. Bigger pinwheels as we descended to north BTL, and we triggered a few shallow wet loose involving just the white snow above the dust layer. North quadrant appears to be ways off from water draining into the snowpack for wet slab issues.

Photos:

6222

Apr. 11, 2023

Soggy Red Ridge wet activity on 4/10

Date of Observation: 04/10/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Pavement observations

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A handful more large Wet Loose and Wet Slab avalanches failed in the Red Ridge area. Wet Slabs seem to be the biggest issue on easterly and westerly aspects with more southerly slopes generally being a loose problem.
Weather:
Snowpack:

Photos:

6221

Apr. 10, 2023

Wet activity from southern end of Whetstone and East side Gothic

Date of Observation: 04/10/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Hwy 135 obs

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several loose avalanches from easterly aspects yesterday viewed early this morning. A handful more gouging wet loose on easterly terrain and loose/slab hybrid avalanches up to D2.5.

Photos:

6219

Apr. 10, 2023

Wet activity from yesterday in Brush Creek

Date of Observation: 04/10/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: West and Middle Brush Creeks.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Documenting yesterday’s avalanches from West Brush. See other ob for today’s wet avy’s.

Photos:

6218

Apr. 10, 2023

Why leave for the desert when the desert came to us?

Date of Observation: 04/10/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: West Brush Creek drainage and Teocalli Mtn to 13,200. Traveled on various aspects, back to the TH by 2 before the peak of meltwater drainage.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: See photos and details below. Yesterday’s slides are documented in separate ob.
BTL: Several large gouging wet loose, wet slabs and glide avalanches ran yesterday. Activity was escalating today, we observed three wet slabs run between 1 p.m and 2 p.m on east aspects (D2-D2.5) and a full-depth wet loose on a south aspect (D2). The wet slabs failed just above the ground and one snapped fairly mature trees.
NTL: A few shallow wet loose (D1-1.5) ran yesterday, along with several large wet slabs (D2) on south to west aspects, in shallow, rocky terrain. Saw one wet slab run today on an east aspect (D1.5) and some more small wet loose activity. Left before the south to west aspects were at peak instability.
ATL: A few fresh cornice falls (D2) and a few shallow wet loose avalanches (D1-1.5). Notably quieter than mid and low elevations for wet activity.
Also a notable D3+ came off of the south face of Teo about a week ago (I’m guessing April 1). It started as a broad storm slab ATL and stepped down into old hard slabs in the gullies before reaching valley bottom.
Weather: Clear, calm winds, sweating profusely by mid day.
Snowpack: Surfaces were frozen and supportive to boot, ski, and sled this morning for a few hours. By about 12:30, east aspects BTL were unsupportive in steep, rocky areas (boot pen thigh+ deep), and small test slopes were easy to initiate gouging wet loose. Wet slab activity began shortly after that here. High northerly aspects remained dry, but were just starting to get damp and rollerball on NE aspects around 12,000′. On planar sunbaked slopes ATL (not near rocks), water had moved into the top 5″ or so. Sledding out became on and off trapdoor this afternoon. The dust is now widespread on the surface at all elevations in the SE mtns, except for high north.

Photos:

6217

Apr. 09, 2023

Cornice fall Hunter Hill

Date of Observation: 04/09/2023

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Hunter Hill

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Cornice fall on Hunter Hill
Photos:

6216

Apr. 09, 2023

More large natural avalanches on the west side of Mt CB

Date of Observation: 04/09/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Obs from town.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several large natural avalanches running out of the westerly side (Terminator Chutes) of Mount Crested Butte. These ran around 6 or 7pm.
Weather:
Snowpack:

Photos:

6215

Apr. 09, 2023

Wet Loose Slides on Red Ridge

Date of Observation: 04/09/2023
Name: Grant Robbins

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Skinning back to Snodgrass TH around 6:45pm noticed a few wet loose slides on south aspect of Res Ridge

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack:

Photos:

6214

Apr. 09, 2023

Wet snow observation in Kebler Pass area

Date of Observation: 04/09/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Kebler Pass corridor to Evan Basin on Emmons and up to Scarp Ridge.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A recent glide avalanche on an easterly aspect of Whetstone BTL on shale slopes, a handful of small wet loose avalanches near treeline, and fresh cornice fall on Emmons along skin track ridge near treeline.
Weather: Some cloud cover in the morning gave way to mostly clear skies by noon and the afternoon. Warm temperatures below treeline, near freezing temps above treeline, and light west-northwest winds at ridgetops.
Snowpack: I traveled around in the afternoon to catch peak warming on easterly and southerly slopes. Below treeline surface crusts lost strength just after noon and I found up to a foot of wet cohesionless snow below. The snowpack strength ramps up not much below the wet snow which leaves a foot or more of wet snow on low elevation sunny slopes for loose snow avalanches to entrainment. Near treeline on an easterly slope , wet snow was limited to the top few inches making for easy, small loose avalanches. Meltwater had drained down to and was oozing through the first crust encounter beneath the dusty crust near the surface. An above treeline a southeast slope was only moist/barely wet in the top few inches. I was able to produce roller balls here, but do not think it was a Wet Loose avalanche problem yet; light winds and modest temps kept alpine sunny slopes in this area from becoming a problem.
There was a dramatic difference between water production on terrain with dirt at or very near the surface versus slopes with 6 inches or more of white snow.

Photos:

6213

Apr. 09, 2023

Wet snow obs and more recent cornice falls

Date of Observation: 04/09/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Rec tour this morning on Purple Peak, traveling on southerly an northeast aspects up to 12,800′

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Two new alpine cornice falls since I was last in this area on the afternoon of 4/7 (D1.5 and D3) and a recent glide avalanche off of rocks on West Beckwith (D1.5)
Weather: Mid-level clouds passed overhead a few times but still lots of solar input. Light winds.
Snowpack: High northerly aspects held dry, stable powder. Surfaces were well-frozen this morning at all elevations. By 11:30 a.m., rollerballs and pinwheels started coming off of rock bands on east aspects NTL as the top few inches got wet. Good corn skiing at that time on southeast NTL. Above treeline south has only seen meltwater go a few inches deep during the last few days. On below treeline south, there were timber sled tracks sinking in about 10″.

Photos:

6212

Apr. 09, 2023

Large Gibson Ridge Wet Slab

Date of Observation: 04/09/2023
Name: Turner Petersen

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: seen in person from Hidden Mine Gate at base of Whetstone

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Small point release opened up to very large full snowpack wetslab on an East aspect of Gibson Ridge. A moment before I noticed how much dust was on this due-east slope. This slid at 1220pm Sunday.
Weather: Sunny. Hot.
Snowpack: Dusty. Hot.

Photos:

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6210

Apr. 08, 2023

Pre-meltdown look around

Date of Observation: 04/08/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch to Mount Baldy’s sunny side.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Decent views into the Ruby Range did not reveal any new cornice falls.
Weather: Increasing cloudiness late morning turned to sporadic snow showers midday. Mild temperatures and moderate SW wind in the afternoon at ridgetop.
Snowpack: Cloudiness limited the Wet Loose avalanche concerns in the area I traveled. Surface crusts softened but didn’t break down during the day. I dug a couple of test profiles looking at east and southeast features – the snowpack generally looks strong in the upper snowpack given the number of crusts and ice columns from recent warm weather. Faceting above a late March crust, on two different slopes (E and SE), appears to be a potential failure plane if flooded by meltwater. Northeasterly slopes below treeline have several soft crusts, with dry snow between, in the upper 18 inches of the snowpack that could be available for entrainment once the water production resumes in the coming days.

Photos:

6209

Apr. 08, 2023

Weekly Snowpack Summary March 24-30, 2023

This week’s snowpack summary is here.  The week brought a potent wind event with modest storm totals, a prominent dust layer, and more large cornice falls.

Apr. 07, 2023

Wet slide anthracites

Date of Observation: 04/06/2023
Name: Emma Vosburg

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Anthracites playground

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: South facing wet slide in the playground behind the anthracites. Human triggered slide on the dust/crust layer.
Started small and picked up speed to the bottom of the slope ~ 300ft down
Weather: 4/6. 2:30pm. 30 degrees no wind blue skies

Photos:

6208

Apr. 07, 2023

More cornice falls and wet loosies

Date of Observation: 04/07/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Scarp Ridge to Peeler Peak and out OBJ basin, traveling on various aspects to 12,200′

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several more large cornice falls that ran sometime in the past couple of days. An uptick in small wet loose activity today, generally on the southern half of the compass at higher elevations and the most action below treeline on east to northeast aspects. We skier triggered a couple of small wet loose slides on northeast aspects below treeline.
Weather: Warm, clear all morning with cloud cover increasing this afternoon.
Snowpack: About 6″ of settled storm snow over the dusty storm interface. The snow became wet on all but NE to NW aspects N/ATL and due north BTL. A pit on a SE aspect NTL in Peeler Basin produced propagating results about 2 feet deep down on the 3/30 interface, a faceted crust. There are several crusts in the upper 3 feet of the snowpack that could pose a concern for wet slab issues if we see a rapid influx of meltwater next week. Currently only the recent storm snow is wet and the 4/3 crust remained frozen except for low elevation southerlies.

Photos:

6207

Apr. 07, 2023

Cornice fall and roller balls

Date of Observation: 04/07/2023
Name: Sam Lesnikoski

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Up over daisy pass, ascended the saddle between Richmond and Hancock to Hancock summit, back over daisy to baxter

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Cornice fall and associated shallow slab on Hancock/Richmond saddle, ran yesterday? Small skier triggered wet sluffs on lower, more easterly facing Hancock benches. Innumerable natural wet slides and sluffs running on dust, all fairly small.
Weather: Sunny and hot with increasing cloud cover by afternoon
Snowpack: Dry and pleasant snow on high northerlies, anything with a bit of east in it was wet by around 11.

Photos:

6206

Apr. 06, 2023

More naturals from the last storm in the Ruby Range

Date of Observation: 04/06/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Mineral Point

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several D1 to D2 wind slabs ran during the storm, some related to cornice fall. See photos and details below.

Photos:

6205

Apr. 06, 2023

Fresh cornice falls, sluffing, and some recent wind slabs in the Ruby Range

Date of Observation: 04/06/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Traveled on various aspects on Mineral Point and Cascade to 12,500′.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous small dry loose avalanches ran today on northerly terrain, and we ski-triggered more of the same (D1). A couple small wet loose ran on an E/SE aspect BTL of Cascade (D1). Several large cornice falls failed sometime since the storm ended, past 48 hours (D2). Several D1 to D2 wind slabs ran during the storm, some related to cornice fall. See photos and details below, the storm-related avalanches are coded in a separate ob.
Weather: Clear skies, calm winds, cold temps near zero this morning rising to 20F at 12k midday.
Snowpack: There’s about a foot of fairly dense storm snow near and above treeline in the Ruby Range with signs of previous drifting. The snow appears to be bonding well to the storm interface, based on targeted feedback from numerous steep test features. We got some shallow cracking a few inches deep from the most recent drifting. The snow stayed dry on northerlies, got a little moist on easterlies, and just the surface got wet on southerlies. The dust is resurfacing on low-elevation southerlies near town.

Photos:

6204

Apr. 06, 2023

Mostly strong and quite supportive snowpack in the shallower parts of the Elks

Date of Observation: 04/05/2023
Name: Ben Pritchett

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Cement Creek to Hunter Creek to Star Pass

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: One small cornice-triggered D1 slab in the Timbered Hill Chutes, which looked like it ran Sunday at the end of the last warm-up. The cornice chunks and debris gouged like the snow was wet a the time.
Weather: Broken skies, flat light, cold temperatures, and nearly calm westerly winds.
Snowpack: Below treeline, the snowpack on all aspects has undergone 4 melt-freeze cycles in the last month (2x in early March, the beginning of the March 20 storm, and late March warm-up). These crusts had water percolate between them repeatedly, making for a very stout upper snowpack structure now. Even at the upper elevations of this elevation band on shady slopes where thin crusts formed, we found no weak layers of concern.

6203

Apr. 05, 2023

Mostly quiet on Axtell

Date of Observation: 04/05/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Mt. Axtell, traveled mostly on N to E aspects to 11,900′.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered and observed a few natural loose avalanches, small in size (D1). Ski cut a small wind slab about 6′ wide, 12″ deep on a crossdrifted north facing slope NTL (D1). There was a thin natural windslab below ridgeline in 4th Bowl, about 4″ deep.
Weather: Partly to mostly cloudy with a few afternoon flurries (S-1). Light winds, no transport.
Snowpack: About 4″ to 5″ of storm snow, delineated by a prominent dust layer near the bottom of the storm. I found a few drifts up to a foot thick in typical locations; ski cuts and stomps were unproductive except one small pocket. It seems most of the wind transport here happened early in the storm before there was much snow available for transport. The last few inches of snow were relatively unaffected by wind and also concealed some of the previous drifting textures.

Photos:

6201

Apr. 05, 2023

From Dust to Dust (Go Back to the Desert)…

Date of Observation: 04/05/2023
Name: Travis Colbert

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch TH; W & E sides of Snodgrass; 9,400-11,000 ft mostly SW & NE aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Snowpack: Fresh dust on a red, dusty crust; with the first dust mentioned quickly turning to mush. Tomorrow I must venture to Saleeda to tread lightly on red, dusty dust.

This riddle, or is it a poem, was inspired by all the bad (good) riddles of Ted Lasso (I have been binge watching) and to a lesser degree by yesterday’s historic indictment of our illustrious/notorious (depending on your persuasion) Donald J Trump :)

OK, for real, sunny aspects were supportive to skis (dust on crust as described above), while the more northerly aspects were dry & soft.

Photos:

6200

Apr. 05, 2023

Dust

Date of Observation: 04/04/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Kebler Pass to Scarp Ridge on snowmobile and ski tour around the Anthracites.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Visibility was poor much of the day, but I could see storm snow debris on a drifted easterly slope near treeline at the top of the Playground in the Anthracites. This feature has a large fetch for gathering snow.
Weather: Mostly cloudy skies with consistent light snow with a few short periods of S2. Storm total of 6 inches around 4pm at 11,000 feet. Moderate wind speeds on near treeline ridgeline.  It is hard to miss the dust at the base of the storm snow, yuck.
Snowpack: Crusts at the old snow surface, just over 11,000 feet, were 3-4cm on southeast slopes, 2cm on east terrain, and thinned away as you move into northeast aspects. North-facing slopes in this area remain fully dry and provided nice turns. I was able to produce a few shooting cracks on drifted near treeline features, but fetches were relatively small so wind slab formation was only a few inches thick.

Photos:

6198

Apr. 03, 2023

THC post warm up

Date of Observation: 04/03/2023
Name: Jack Caprio

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Skied down east brush creek from Friends Hut on 4/3

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: One notable slab avalanche that ran later in the day on 4/2 during the warm up. The avalanche occurred on an ESE slope below treeline in the Timbered Hill Chutes. The crown was at 11,400’ on the shoulder of the 2nd THC path downstream from the Friends Hut. The avalanche looked to step down through the 3/30 interface into deeper March interfaces.

There was also plenty of remnants of wet loose activity on death pass. Roller balls and cinnamon rolls galore.
Weather: Cloudy and windy.
Snowpack: The super highway was nice and fast

Photos:

6196

Apr. 03, 2023

Wind slabs near Star Pass

Date of Observation: 04/02/2023
Name: Megan Paden

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Star Pass area

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A couple of fresh wind slabs on east side of Crystal and Hunter.
Cornice drop on Star.
No large persistent slabs observed in this area.
One wet loose on an easterly slope near Italian.

 

Photos:

6195

Apr. 02, 2023

More large avalanches from yesterday’s warmup or overnight winds

Date of Observation: 04/02/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Morning tour on Mt. Emmons, traveling on southerly and northerly aspects to 12,000′

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several notable large avalanches that ran sometime since Evan was on Mt. Emmons yesterday morning. These likely ran during Saturday afternoon’s peak warming, or the cornice falls could have happened overnight. Plus a few older wind slabs that likely ran during Friday’s storm.
-A second cornice fall in Redwell Basin, extending dirty debris further than the slide in the same area that Evan documented yesterday, and prying out a couple of slabs in the upper snowpack, ~D2.5 to D3 in size.
-Several wide D2 to D2.5 storm slabs that ran on the southwest side of Schuylkill Ridge to valley floor in OBJ, snapping several trees.
-A large wind slab in Peeler Basin that was triggered by cornice fall, D2.
Weather: Strong winds above treeline and moderate winds below treeline were helping to keep snow surfaces cool today. Winds appeared to be sublimating the drifting snow  more than loading. Few clouds. Spring temps.
Snowpack: Skied steep, north-facing terrain with no signs of instability. On solar aspects, crusts started to soften around 11 or noon. I didn’t see any active rollerballs or wet loose activity by the time we left at 1 p.m. I stomped around above a wind-loaded east-facing slope midday and couldn’t produce any signs of instability.

Photos:

6194

Apr. 02, 2023

A Few More Cornice Avalanches in the SE Mountains

Date of Observation: 04/02/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: SE Mountain FX area

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: 4 cornice avalanches that failed since Friday. 2 above Copper Creek on a SE aspect at 12,000ft. Another 2 in the Hidden Lake Bowl of Mt Whetstone on a northerly facing slope at 12,200ft. The Hidden Lake Bowl cornices may be repeat offenders similar to those that keep falling into Redwell.

Photos:

6193

Apr. 02, 2023

Slate River to Cascade

Date of Observation: 04/02/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate River to Cascade

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: The natural loose wet avalanche activity has remained fairly minimal, with fewer small loose wet avalanches and more roller balls.

Got a closer look at the natural slab avalanche, that ran late Saturday afternoon, above the Slate River Rd. This avalanche ran on a SW aspect at 10,800ft. The best guess is that this was a natural storm slab avalanche that failed during the rapid warming event that occurred on Saturday. The slab looked to have run on the old snow interface. Near the avalanche debris, the top 10 cm of the snowpack had become wet and the remaining storm snow below was dry.

Weather: Partly Cloudy, Light to moderate winds with blowing snow off the high peaks.

Snowpack: The wind was penetrating to valley level and helping keep snow surfaces somewhat cool. Loose wet avalanches appeared to be more problematic yesterday. The wind in the alpine looked like it was doing more eroding than actual wind-loading.

Photos:

6192

Apr. 02, 2023

Weekly Snowpack Summary March 24-30, 2023

The weekly summary is here. Spring continued to be on hold at the start of the week as a series of storms rolled through the valley. Warming temperatures on Tuesday and Wednesday initiated wet loose avalanches, some of which triggered larger persistent slabs.

Weekly Summary March 24-30, 2023 COMPRESSED
Apr. 01, 2023

Very large slide off of West Beckwith

Date of Observation: 04/01/2023
Name: Insta Gram

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: West Beckwith

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Slab avalanche that broke deeply on a crossloaded S to SE facing slope either today or yesterday.

Photos:

6189

Apr. 01, 2023

Hot Storm Slab

Date of Observation: 04/01/2023

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate River

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: This avalanche ran late on 4/1. Natural or a remote trigger.

Photos:

6188

Apr. 01, 2023

Yesterday’s powder, tranistioned to Apirl Mayonnaise.

Date of Observation: 04/01/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Mt Emmons. Redwell Tour.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A wide propagating slab on an easterly aspect into Redwell Basin. 11,600ft. D2. Avalanche debris looked soft so I’d estimate it ran yesterday during the storm.

A fresh cornice fell in redwell basin, probably ran this morning or at the end of the storm. D2.

A fresh cornice fell in the Climax Chutes, probably ran this morning or at the end of the storm. D1.5

Roller balls and some small loose wet avalanches around the solar half of the compass.

Weather: Clear sky, rising temps. Calm winds down low and light winds in the alpine.

Snowpack: At 10,800ft on the South side of Mt Emmons the recent HST was 35cm. We climbed the south side of Mt Emmons while the snow was just warming, then skied dry snow of the West and north sides. By the time we hit OBJ and changed both aspects and elevation the snow surface was wet. This tour was for good snow and avoided the avalanche problems.

Photos:

6186

Apr. 01, 2023

Naturals in the SE Mtns

Date of Observation: 04/01/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Mt. CB

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several D2 wind slabs on Avery and Gothic that ran yesterday. Numerous small wet loose today (D1s). And of course the very large persistent slab off of Gothic, which triggered an additional persistent slab crown below the cliff band.
Weather: Clear skies, mild temps, occasional light drifting near wind exposed summits.

Photos:

6185

Apr. 01, 2023

Naturals in the NW Mtns

Date of Observation: 04/01/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Mt. CB

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A large persistent slab (D2.5) on a shallow, east-facing slope on East Beckwith looks like it ran yesterday. Several wind slabs D1-D2, mostly yesterday, one today. A large cornice fall today (D2). Numerous small wet loose today (D1s).
Weather: Clear skies, mild temps, occasional light drifting near wind exposed summits.

Photos:

6184

Apr. 01, 2023

Small windslab on Gothic

Date of Observation: 04/01/2023
Name: Travis Colbert

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: A couple of laps at Coney’s via a semi-standard route. 9,600-10,800 feet, ENE aspect.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: D1 wind slab in steep, cross-loaded WSW terrain on Gothic that looked pretty fresh.
Weather: Clear and calm. Temps in the teens at 9AM, quickly climbing to tropical by 11AM.
Snowpack: 6-8″ new snow. Cold and dry at the start, but rapidly transforming to wet and sticky in a couple of hours.

Photos:

6183

Apr. 01, 2023

Very large avalanche off Gothic

Date of Observation: 04/01/2023
Name: Travis Guy and billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Very large persistent slab on the east face of Gothic. Slide ran after 4 p.m. yesterday.  It did not reach the county road anywhere but did hit an RMBL cabin though right at the end of a side shoot off the main run. so it looks like it may be OK.  But it’s buried so who knows.
Photos:

6182

Apr. 01, 2023

Gothic weather

Date of Observation: 04/01/2023
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic townsite

Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Light to moderate snow Friday morning with light afternoon snow and steady wind with strong gusts as it remained cloudy all day. Wind slowed after dark, becoming light just before sunrise with gradual clearing after midnight. Total new 24 hour snowfall was 5½” new with water 0.38″. Snowpack reached 95½” (a record depth for March 31) and now sits at 94½” with a partly cloudy sky and just a light breeze. March ended with 102½” snowfall with water of 9.24″- 4th most snow in a March and second most water content since 1975. And just think- we were all here to shovel through it.

6181

Mar. 31, 2023

Deep storm totals and lots of wind in the Slate

Date of Observation: 03/31/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Baxter Basin area; traveled on North to East to Southeast aspects to about 11,000′.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Ski triggered a 10″ wind slab on a small test slope. Visibility was too poor to see most avalanche terrain.
Weather: Moderate to heavy snowfall. Strong, variable winds. They were initially blowing down the basin (out of the west) and then switched to blowing up the basin (out of the north). Periods of intense wind drifting.
Snowpack: Valley floor storm totals ranged from about 10″ at the Slate TH to 20″ in Poverty Gulch. In wind-sheltered terrain, the snow was fairly low density and cohesionless, and sluffed in steep terrain. The snow got noticeably thicker and denser in wind-affected terrain. Drifts were up to 3 feet thick in some areas, and other areas were scoured down to yesterday’s crust. I got a mix of shooting cracks and nothing on steep drifted features. Cracks were up to 30′ long.

Photos:

6179

Mar. 31, 2023

East River area and small skier triggered avalanche on drifted BTL slope

Date of Observation: 03/30/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Traveled above the East River just up valley from the confluence with Brush Creek.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: One slab avalanche that ran in the upper snowpack that likely failed during warming a few days ago on low elevation east slope. Intentionally triggered a Windslab on a small northwest-facing slope near valley bottom, this feature has an abnormally huge fetch. Wind Slab was resting above 1mm facets above a crust.
Weather: Mostly cloudy skies with moderate winds through 2pm. Snowfall and strong SSW winds started around 3pm.
Snowpack: HS through this low-elevation terrain typically ranged from 90 to 120cm outside of drifted terrain. A quick profile on a south-southeast slope at 9,100 feet showed a strong structure with ice columns to the ground which indicated meltwater has made its way through the entire snowpack (this strong structure is not common throughout the greater forecast area). A profile into the bed surface of the intentionally trigger slide, on a drifted northwest slope, showed a 10″ thick crust/ice column matrix resting about 2 feet of depth hoar. Surface conditions on northerly features were a thin melt/freeze crust with 6 inches of faceted snow below.

Photos:

6178

Mar. 30, 2023

More faceted crusts

Date of Observation: 03/30/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Rec tour on Axtell 2nd Bowl

Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Clouds increased mid-morning, as did winds. Drifting off of the high peaks.
Snowpack: No signs of instability skiing steep northerly terrain below treeline.
Thin (2-3cm) breakable (1F- to 4F-) crusts span east to due northeast (45 degrees) in steep terrain. This storm interface doesn’t look as bad as the 3/20 interface, but I don’t expect new snow to bond well to these crusts. There is a thin layer of small-grained (~.5mm) near surface facets above the crust. This layer gets thicker (up to 5 mm thick) moving towards northeast, while the crust gets softer and thinner. Anything north of 45 degrees held dry, settled powder with minor surface faceting (~.3mm) and minimal sluffing.

Photos:

6177

Mar. 29, 2023

Warming surface snow below treeline and recent avalanche activity

Date of Observation: 03/29/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Evans Basin on Mount Emmons and Kebler Pass/Ohio Pass corridor.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few small loose avalanches from warming today. Two loose avalanches triggered slabs on east aspects. One older avalanche likely failed during Monday’s storm that initially failed in storm snow and then stepped down two more feet; this avalanche snapped on small tree in the runout (D2.5).
Weather: Increasing clouds in the morning that were mostly cloudy in the afternoon. Temps reached close to 40 degrees below treeline. Light winds at low elevations, no snow transport was observed above treeline in the areas I traveled.
Snowpack: I took a look at the impact of yesterday’s and today’s warming on the snowpack on the south half of the compass. In general, I found crusts 1.5 – 3 cm thick (up to 1.25 inchs). I did not find liquid water draining into the snowpack much below the surface. Crusts on some steep sunny slopes might be supportive to skis tomorrow, but I suspect slightly breakable. I observed several snowbike tracks on steep sunny below treeline slopes that did not produce avalanche activity.

Photos:

6176

Mar. 29, 2023

More naturals in the Ruby Range

Date of Observation: 03/29/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Ruby Range, viewed from Mt. CB

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A couple of large cornice falls (Owen and Scarp Ridge), a handful of small wet loose on S-E aspects A/NTL, and a hot wind slab. These are new since I put binos on the same terrain yesterday around 11 a.m.
Weather: Clouds increased mid-day. Above freezing temps.

Photos:

6175

Mar. 29, 2023

Perry Creek brown stain 💩

Date of Observation: 03/29/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Perry Creek, viewed from Mt. CB

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Destructive natural persistent slab, S-SE aspect above Perry Creek, ran to the ground shortly below start zone. Turner spotted this one fresh yesterday afternoon.

Photos:

6174

Mar. 28, 2023

Older naturals from Southeast Mountains

Date of Observation: 03/28/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Hunter Hill and Carbonate Hill

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Documenting avalanche activity from last week.

Photos:

6172

Mar. 28, 2023

Wide crown on Teo Ridge!😳 And triggered wind slabs.

Date of Observation: 03/28/2023
Name: Zach Guy and Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Cement Creek, Hunter Hill, Star Pass, and Carbonate Hill. Various aspects to 13,000′

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: An impressively wide persistent slab avalanche across the E/NE side of Teo Ridge looks fresh in the past 48 hours, 2300′ wide on Google Earth. Snowmobile triggered a couple of 2′ wind slabs above treeline, one remotely, one with a slope cut, and there were a few recent natural wind slabs. Documenting older avalanches from the past week in a separate ob.
Weather: Clear to few clouds, below freezing temps in the alpine. Light winds with transport on a few terrain features.
Snowpack: Recent wind slab formation was localized to terrain features with large fetches for northwest winds; they were sensitive to slope cuts on the 3/24 crust, which looks lightly faceted. No signs of deeper instabilities under the sled today. A pit on an east aspect near treeline produced non-propagating failure on the 3/20 faceted crust under a 55cm soft slab. Snow surfaces stayed cool enough to keep wet loose activity at bay; the only wet loose activity I saw was in the steep, cliffy terrain around Mt. CB this afternoon.

Photos:

6171

Mar. 28, 2023

Fresh persistent slabs and wind slabs in the NW Mtns.

Date of Observation: 03/28/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Carbonate Hill and Slate River Road.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Large persistent slab (D2.5) on the SE side of Schuylkill Ridge ran this afternoon during the warmup. A handful of D1-D2 wind slabs in the Ruby Range that likely ran yesterday or overnight. A slab on East Beckwith (NE ATL) broke near the ground on a steep, shallow, rocky slope, sometime in the past 48 hours.

Photos:

6170

Mar. 28, 2023

Fresh wind slabs in the Ruby Range

Date of Observation: 03/28/2023
Name: Irwin Guides

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Irwin Tenure

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several fresh wind slabs above treeline, new since yesterday afternoon. Likely ran overnight.

Photos:

6169

Mar. 28, 2023

Anthracite Mesa

Date of Observation: 03/27/2023
Name: Jaime Odin

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Ascended/descended the south east shoulder of anthracite mesa to 10,400 ft

Observed avalanche activity: No
Snowpack: 1-2 ft of weak new snow present throughout the tour, with a mostly supportable crust underneath, except for in sheltered terrain, especially in dense timber. Average ski penetration ~30cm boot penetration ~60cm. At 10,400 ft on an open SE aspect 10 degree slope the surface height was 240cm. Underneath the top 25cm of new snow was an easily breakable crust with ~60cm of weak, faceted snow beneath. Another crust was beneath the facets but I did not dig under this second crust which was ~80cm beneath the surface. Pulling on an isolated column with a shovel easily broke a slab of the new snow at the first crust/facet interface, instilling little confidence in the current snow structure.

Photos:

6168

Mar. 27, 2023

Pit results from the Slate and a wind slab.

Date of Observation: 03/27/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Upper Slate, Purple Palace area to 11,000′, traveling on easterly aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Snowmobile cut an 18″ wind slab on Slate cut bank feature that catches efficient downvalley drifting. The slab failed on the 3/24 crust on a south aspect BTL.
Weather: Overcast, S-1 to S1 snowfall with an inch or two of accumulation today. Light northwest winds and light transport below treeline. Still coooold.
Snowpack: Dug several pits within a few hundred feet of each other on SE, E, and NE aspects below treeline. I got a mix of hard propagating and non-propagating results at the 3/20 interface. The east facing pit, which I dug just above an old crown, had the weakest looking structure and was the only pit that consistently produced unstable results. I did get one propagating result on northeast as well, but it was on an old graupel layer about 25 cm below the 3/15 crust, and the result was not repeatable.
No signs of instability while breaking trail.
There is about 10-12″ of dry recent storm snow above the 3/24 crust on southerlies in Upper Slate, and 4″ to 6″ above the crust closer to the trailhead. On easterlies, the snowpack has remained dry down to the 3/20 crust, 30″ deep. The upper foot or so is fist hard but dense enough that it isn’t dry sluffing.

Photos:

6167

Mar. 27, 2023

Recent large avalanches in Red Lady and Whetstone

Date of Observation: 03/27/2023
Name: Eric Murow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: HWY 135 observations

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Large avalanche ran in Red Lady Bowl – I would suspect it ran today while wind-loaded. Large natural avalanche on the easterly side of M-Face on Whestone. This avalanche appeared to break fairly deep with rocks exposed; this feature is unsupported from below.
Weather: I observed moderate wind-loading above treeline onto easterly aspects.
Snowpack:

Photos:

6166

Mar. 27, 2023

Gothic Weather

Date of Observation: 03/27/2023
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic townsite

Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Second verse, same as the first. Obscured cloud cover with light, dense snowfall, most in the past 24 hours coming between sunset and around 2 a.m. with 3½” new snow and water 0.34″. The snowpack is back at 94½”. Light wind with some gusting and cool with the high 21, low 4 and the current 5.

6164

Mar. 26, 2023

Recent large natural near Skykill Mtn

Date of Observation: 03/26/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Pittsburg to 11,600′ saddle between Schuylkill Ridge and Schuylkill Mtn, traveling mostly on north and northeast aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A large (D2.5) debris pile off the north side of Schuylkill Ridge appeared to run Friday night or Saturday, based on minimal fresh snow on the debris. We traced the lookers right side of the debris lobe, which knocked over a few small trees. The combination of flat light and recent drifting near ridgetop made it difficult to make out the crown.
Weather: Unseasonably cold. Light winds. Very light snowfall and overcast most of the day.
Snowpack: About 6″ of recent snow from Friday night, with notable wind affect near treeline. No signs of instability underfoot except for some minor cracking about 8″ deep in drifted terrain. Stability tests on both north and southeast aspects near treeline produced hard, non-propagating results on the 3/20 interface, which is small, rounding facets buried about 60 cm deep.

Photos:

6163

Mar. 26, 2023

Small Skier Triggered Avalanche

Date of Observation: 03/25/2023

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate River

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Small skier-triggered avalanche. NE.9,400ft.

Photos:

6162

Mar. 26, 2023

Weekly Snowpack Summary March 17-23, 2023

The weekly summary is here. The previous weekend’s mild weather gave way to a week full of storms. Total snowfall for most areas was over 20″ by the weekend. Avalanche activity for the week was characterized by widespread storm slab action, a natural cycle that produced several large avalanches, and one of the biggest remotely triggered avalanches of the season on Baldy.

 

Weekly Summary March 17-23, 2023 (1) COMPRESSED
Mar. 25, 2023

Remotely triggered 3 very large avalanches

Date of Observation: 03/25/2023

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Anthracite Range. NW Mountains.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: We remote triggered at least 3 very large avalanches on southeast to south-facing terrain above the Beaver Ponds. We were choosing to ski northerly-facing terrain, but while skiing down the ridge to a second lap on the back of the ridge, we felt a collapse, and watched three very large (D3) avalanches run to near their vegetative trim lines.

Weather: Cold, mostly cloudy, breezy. We did not see much snow transport during the day, but it looked like snow drifted overnight.

Photos:

6161

Mar. 25, 2023

Couple More Remote Triggers

Date of Observation: 03/25/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Brush Creek out to Teo

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: East, 9,700ft. Remotely triggered a small avalanche from a couple of hundred feet away. This was a wind-loaded terrain feature and a lot of the feather isn’t steep enough to avalanche. The crown is estimated to be 60 to 70cm thick. I didn’t get to check the crown.

East, 10,100ft. Remotely triggered a D1.5 from 15 feet away. The avalanche propagated above and into steeper terrain. The slab was 65cm thick and around 280 feet across. The weak layer was the 3/20 crust collapsing into the 3/15 crust. The average slope angle of the bed surface was 40+ degrees.

Weather: Obscured with poor visibility. Light to moderate winds at lower elevations. I wore 2 down coats and a shell, must be getting soft.

Snowpack: Hunting some obvious signs of instability and they were somewhat hard to find. In general, the faceted crusts in the upper snowpack were similar to those in the NW Mountain forecast area. On some occasions, I got results with last week’s storm snow failing on the 3/20 crust, and in others, the 3/20 crust was collapsing into the 3/15 crust. I only got two notable collapses while traveling through the terrain. HST since yesterday was 4″. Visibility was poor, but what below treeline terrain I could see didn’t have a notable natural avalanche cycle last week.

Photos:

6160

Mar. 25, 2023

Collapses

Date of Observation: 03/25/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: South of forecast area
Route Description: Rec tour, Spring Creek area. SE to NE aspects BTL

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A recent persistent slab on a west facing slope BTL.
Weather: Mostly cloudy, very light snow. Unseasonably cold. Moderate winds in exposed terrain.
Snowpack: Snowdepth was around 100 to 130 cm. We got a couple of large collapses that appeared to fail mid pack, below about 60 cm of slab-forming snow that has fallen in March. The weak layer was facets (F) with one or multiple crusts above. These were on low angle southeast slopes; more representative of what I would expect to find on steep east.

Photos:

6159

Mar. 25, 2023

Gothic 7am weather update

Date of Observation: 03/25/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic

Weather: Moderate to heavy snow after dark stopping around midnight with 6″ new and water 0.54″. The snowpack is at 95″ deep, just below the winter’s deepest of 97″ but the past 4 days have been the deepest snowpack on record for these dates. A steady 4-8 mph west wind with gusting to 15 as temperature slowly drops. After a high yesterday of 32 it is currently the days low of 3 with a cloudy sky (now and for forever it seems).

6157

Mar. 24, 2023

Slate River Crown Investigation 🕵️

Date of Observation: 03/24/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate River. Variety of aspects. Mostly stayed within 500 hundred feet of the valley floor.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Many of the avalanches in the Slate and upper Slate have already been documented. I targeted specifics on those weak layers and that info is below. Avalanches on easterly aspects had the largest propagation and the most number of avalanches. However Northerly and westerly aspects had their share. The crowns in the alpine appear to be drifted back over or not visible with the recent weather.

I remotely triggered one large slab avalanche from a few hundred feet away, while traveling on a low-angled slope below. The avalanche ran on a west-facing aspect at 9,700ft. Later that day I found a D1 natural that ran today on another West aspect. These avalanches appeared to run on top of the 3/20 crust.

The NE to E Happy Chutes and Climax chutes had a handful of D1.5 to D2 slab avalanches from the last storm. The crowns were most commonly on the steep 40 to 40+ degree rollers in the terrain.

Weather: Calm to light wind in the valleys. Notable blowing snow off the high peaks in the later afternoon. Mostly cloudy and warm.

Snowpack: I targeted several old avalanche crowns to get a better sense of whether the recent avalanche cycle was breaking in non-persistent storm snow or the well-documented persistent weak layers in the upper snowpack. In each crown I checked out, the avalanche had broken on or below the 3/20 interface, before using the 3/15 interface as a bed surface.

On Easterly facing slopes, the 3/20 interface is a collapsible crust about 1cm to 3cm thick, and the avalanche activity on these aspects had propagated widely across the terrain. The 3/15 interface just made for a nice bed surface on all these avalanches. The crown heights were typically 45 to 65cm.

Where the 3/20 interface was NSF, on northerly facing slopes, the avalanches didn’t propagate as wide.

On westerly aspects, the upper snowpack structure is similar to that found on east aspects. I targeted one test pit on a west aspect 10,500ft, and got an ECTP 23 result on the 3/20 interface. Later I got the remotely triggered avalanche on another west aspect and saw the small nature on another west aspect.

I didn’t observe any obvious signs of instability. The upper slab has settled and gained strength.

Photos:

6156

Mar. 24, 2023

Cement Mtn Slide

Date of Observation: 03/24/2023
Name: Cosmo Langsfeld

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Cement Creek Rd

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Fresh looking slide on Cement Mtn north bowl. NE-ish aspect, maybe some of the E facing terrain as well. Looks like it began in wind loaded terrain up high and stepped down into a deeper layer part way down the path. Spotted Friday morning.
Weather: Partly cloudy.
Snowpack:

Photos:

6155

Mar. 24, 2023

Large Remote Trigger on Emmons

Date of Observation: 03/24/2023

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Red Lady Glades

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Remote triggered this repeat offender D2.5 from 50m away on ridge at about 12pm. Crown estimated to be 70m x 40cm. Failed at storm interface on 2mm facets resting on 2.5cm crust.
Weather: Sun, clouds & flurries. Light winds ATL.
Snowpack: Hand shear of crown “cash registered” as I was most of the way through cutting the block.

Photos:

6154

Mar. 24, 2023

Ankle Biters in Cement Creek

Date of Observation: 03/23/2023
Name: Sam Strait

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Snowmobile tour up Cement Creek Road and in terrain adjacent to road

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: 2x small (D1) naturals on W aspect @10,400

Weather: Mostly cloudy with brief periods of sun

6153

Mar. 24, 2023

Upper Slate avalanche obs

Date of Observation: 03/23/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: View from Elkton Knob.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Obvious natural cycle on Wednesday 3/22. Numerous avalanches broke near the storm interface on easterly aspects below treeline on Purple Ridge and Schuylkill Ridge near Pittsburg. Many of the easterly avalanches appeared to run late on 3/22. Looking at the up valley end of Schuylkill Ridge there was lots of evidence of avalanches running earlier in the storm but visibility was poor and I wouldn’t see crowns and debris was difficult to read. Atleast one avalanche near the last forested area before the Great Wide Open reportedly ran early Thursday morning. I never really got a good view of Scarp Ridge or the spine of the Ruby Range; I suspect there is more natural activity I was unable to see.
Weather: Mostly cloudy skies with periodic light snowfall obscured views.
Snowpack:

Photos:

6152

Mar. 24, 2023

Naturals on Whetstone and Emmons

Date of Observation: 03/23/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: HWY 135 observations.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few more unreported slides on Whetstone and Mount Emmons that appear to break only in the recent storm snow.
Weather:
Snowpack:

Photos:

6151

Mar. 23, 2023

Ruby natural avalanche – submitted via email

Date of Observation: 03/23/2023
Name: Dave Kozlowski

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Ruby Peak

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: natural avalanche on Ruby Peak.
Weather:
Snowpack:

Photos:

6150

Mar. 23, 2023

Thick Storm Slabs

Date of Observation: 03/23/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch TH to Elkton Knob area.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: I will put most avalanche coding and photos in another ob. No natural avalanche activity near TH. View from the top of Elkton Knob was marginal but buffed debris was visible (few crowns) all over the alpine terrain in the Northwest Mountains and covered many aspects; this drifted over natural activity involved storm snow only. Once on top of Elkton Knob there were a lot of widely-propagating crowns visible in the Upper Slate corridor near Pittsburg and on Purple Ridge below treeline. Easterly aspects seemed to be the bullseye below treeline. HIGH danger occurred at all elevations on Wednesday in the Northwest Mountains.
Weather: Mostly cloudy skies with periodic snow showers; no accumulations. Temperatures were seasonally cool, but solar radiation was enough to moisten snow surfaces on sunny aspects. Winds remained light with some moderate gusting up to 11,200. I saw a few periods of blowing snow across the highest terrain during the day. Settled storm totals up to 32″ at 11,000 feet.
Snowpack: The recent storm snow was thick and supportive to skis on all aspects with ski penetration around 7 to 10 inches. I experienced a few muffled collapses that did not travel far. Periodic sunshine moistened snow surfaces on E-S-W slopes below 11,000 feet but failed to warm enough to make loose avalanches an issue. Snowpack tests on easterly slopes produced moderate propagating results (see image) above the melt/freeze crust at the new/old interface. I traveled near several pieces of avalanche terrain trying to get a remote trigger without result; the storm slab is far too supportive and thick to consider ski cutting anything so I kept a safe distance from steep terrain. A profile on a northerly slope did not produce propagating results on the faceted new/old interface (1-1.5mm facets); I was fairly surprised by this given how weak this interface is.

Photos:

6149

Mar. 23, 2023

Gothic 7am weather

Date of Observation: 03/23/2023
Name: Billy Barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Townsite

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: Heavy snowfall Wednesday morning but only light in the afternoon and evening, stopping by midnight. The 24 hour total was 10″ new, with 0.88″ of water content. Wind became off and on, generally moderate with gusting but let up towards sunrise today. Snowpack reached 97″ deep- the deepest on record for March 22. Currently cloudy but calm and not snowing. The 24 hour high was 33 and the low and current 13. Snowpack dropped all the way down to 96½” (at this rate we should hit bare ground by October). billy
Snowpack:

6147

Mar. 23, 2023

Naturals on Whetstone

Date of Observation: 03/23/2023

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Observed from my kitchen window

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Overnight natural avalanche cycle on E aspects of Whetstone.
Weather: Clearing skies
Snowpack:

Photos:

6146

Mar. 23, 2023

Large Barcelona bowl natural

Date of Observation: 03/23/2023
Name: Turner Petersen

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Seen from 135. Crown wraps N-NW

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Yes
Weather:
Snowpack:

Photos:

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6145

Mar. 23, 2023

Irwin Guides cat-ski observations

Date of Observation: 03/22/2023
Name: Irwin Guides

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Irwin cat-ski tenure.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several, SS-ASc-D1 storm slabs 8-14″ thick on W and S aspects. Party hats L SS-ASc-R2-D2-I. W aspect NTL 14-16″ X 100′ X 800′ Failed on the 3/20 MFC interface.
Weather:
Snowpack: We did not travel E aspects today due to visibility. In the AM storm slabs on W
aspects tittered between stubborn and reactive. 6-8″ storm slabs grew to 12-16″ as the day progressed with
isolated loaded areas up to 24″ thick. By the afternoon avg. crown heights were in the 12-14″ range and
trended towards very touchy with remote triggers up to 25′ away. S aspects reacted vary similar to W BTL/ NTL
today. All were failing on the 3/20 MFC interface. The MFC produced repeat offence avalanches in our tenure
as guides skied certain slopes after snow safety passes.

6144

Mar. 22, 2023

Easy to trigger avalanches on Snodgrass

Date of Observation: 03/22/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Snodgrass TH up standard skinner with detours to nearby steep terrain features.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: I remotely triggered two avalanches on a southeast-facing feature below treeline; slides ran on the melt/freeze crust at the storm interface in low density storm snow from the start of the storm. I ski-cut a large Storm Slab that broke on a mid-storm weak layer on an east aspect; as the avalanche ran it propagated wider and down to the storm interface. This avalanche may have collapsed the soft melt/freeze crust beneath the storm snow on east aspects.
Weather: Overcast skies with increasing winds during the day. Strong winds penetrated down to valley bottom during the afternoon. Storm totals ranged from 20-22 inches. From 1030 to 130 snowfall rates were commonly in the 1 to 2-inch-an-hour range. Visibility was obscured all day so I never got a view of the surrounding terrain.
Snowpack: Avalanches in the storm snow were very easy to trigger with some occurring remotely. Low-density snow from the start of the storm remains sensitive to human triggers in sheltered areas. South and southwest-facing slopes below treeline had thick melt/freeze crusts around 4 inches thick below the storm snow and did not appear to cause concern for collapsing. Southeast and east-facing slopes crusts were thinner and may pose a threat for triggered avalanches after issues in the storm snow settle out. I experienced one collapse on an east-facing slope and a nearby test profile suggests that the crust below the storm snow is near its breaking point. I initiated a Loose Dry avalanche down a north-facing slope that gathered a lot of mass, but surprisingly, it failed to release a slab (maybe this slope avalanches the day before). Faceted grains were obvious beneath the storm snow in a north-facing test profile but no propagating results.

Photos: