Date of Observation: 02/18/2022
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Baxter Basin area
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: I observed a couple of natural slab avalanches in the near treeline elevation band – small size on northeast and east aspects. These slides were not visible at 3 pm on Thursday afternoon.
Weather: Seasonably cool temperatures with gusty winds above treeline and generally light winds in the basin.
Snowpack: We skied a northwest-facing piece of terrain near treeline and found around 5 inches of new snow resting on a patchwork of thin wind boards or soft near-surface facets. We selected terrain to avoid recent and previous wind-loading. Probed extensively on the uptrack looking for thicker hard slabs beneath the new snow and did not find anything of concern.
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- A small avalanche from Thursday night on east aspect of Mineral Point. I suspect this failed as a slab in a cross-loaded feature near the bottom part of the east face.
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- Two more small slab avalanches near Richmond that were not visible Thursday afternoon.
