Hard slabville

Date of Observation: 03/05/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Southeast shoulder of Gothic to 11,500′, and east side of Snograss BTL.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several natural D1-1.5 wind slab avalanches on Axtell, Whetstone, and the Shield (Redwell Basin). One in Redwell Basin that looked large (D2) from a distance.
Weather: Mostly cloudy skies north of town, partly cloudy south of town. Light winds below treeline except for some periods of strong gusts/blowing snow in valley bottom. Blowing snow continued for most of the day off of the high peaks, and near treeline was somewhere between the two.
Snowpack: Snow surfaces remained soft and relatively unaffected by winds below treeline on Snodgrass. In sheltered terrain, the snow surface was denser and creamier compared to yesterday, with no new slab formation. As we moved into more wind exposed near treeline terrain, surfaces were heavily wind affected, varying from eroded to the last crust or loaded into hard thin slabs. Fresh wind slabs on small terrain features ranged from 3″ to 16″ thick. Some produced cracking, some produced collapses, and others gave no feedback to stomps or ski cuts. I didn’t ski cut the larger looking slabs in a proper windloaded start zone because I don’t like messing with hard slabs.