Date of Observation: 04/01/2022
Name: Evan Ross
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: 9,000ft to 12,000ft on a variety of aspects.
Avalanches: There were a couple of D1 wind slabs out some small loose wet avalanches, but really uneventful.
Weather: Snowfall ended in the morning and the sky became partly cloudy through the mid-day before increasing in the late afternoon. Winds died down mid-day, but otherwise were transporting snow at upper elevations.
Snowpack: Welp I tried, but I sure didn’t find much. It’s interesting, the last two storms have come in somewhat upside down with layers of softer perception particles and/or graupel near the bottom of the slab. These layers are capable of producing avalanches, and they have… but they have also quickly quieted down. Triggering a wind slab on these interfaces seems possible, but I didn’t manage to find the most concerning areas. At near treeline elevations, these slabs seem to be baking in quickly with the warm temps and strong sun lately. Above treeline may be more problematic.
I targeted several wind-loaded locations and each time I didn’t find them to be currently very problematic. So call it a strikeout. However, the potential was obviously there and wind slab management would have been key.
In northerly wind-sheltered areas, there was around a foot of recent snow from these last two storms. The potential weak layers were better preserved in these areas, but I never found enough of a slab to create a more widespread storm slab issue. As you travel to lower elevations the recent snow accumulations have been zapped down and offered some creamy turns but was also not problematic.
Photos:-
- Upper OBJ
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- Another view of a previously reported avalanche.
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- Small avalanche on the east face of Schuylkill Mountain
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- Small avalanche in upper OBJ on a northerly facing slope.
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- Graupel popping in shovel tilt test. north 11,500ft.
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- Recent small slabs. N to NE 10,600ft. I wasn’t able to produce similar results.
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- North, 10,600ft, wind-sheltered. About 1ft of recent snow out of the last two storms with the potentially weak storm interfaces well preserved. Not enough slab here to produce results.
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- Concerning looking cross-loaded terrain. NE 10,700ft.
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- ESE 11,600ft. No concerning structure found. Higher up the wind-loading was confined to right at the ridgeline. A wind slab felt stubborn to trigger there.
