Date of Observation: 03/17/2022
Name: Eric Murrow Ben Prichett
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Cascade and Augusta Mountain area along the spine of the Ruby Range. Slate River corridor to Poverty Gulch and traveled on foot around the Angel Pass area.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous loose avalanches in the storm snow around rocky areas near and above treeline. Several shallow slab avalanches in the storm snow were observed at upper elevations. All the fresh avalanche activity was small in size and generally not a threat to a person
Weather: New snow accumulations overnight ranged from 2 inches at valley bottom to 6 inches above treeline. Cloud cover alternated between overcast and broken. Light snowfall during the early afternoon hours.
Snowpack: In this snow-favored area, the snowpack was commonly near or deeper than 300cm. We dug several profiles on southeast, east, and north slopes assessing the Persistent Slab structure (see profiles). The profile from the northerly slope was in an abnormally shallow area as we looking for a “trigger point” type location where it would be more likely for the weight of a person to impact the weak layer. On the north half of the compass, the concerning February weak layer was generally 150+cm deep and 1 finger hard, no notable snowpack test results. No signs of instability were noted on the deeply buried weak layers.
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- Southeast-facing profile at 11,500′ in a very alpine-like location. Meltwater has drained through both upper-snowpack slabs forming many thin ice lenses and vertical ice masses. March 17, 2022
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- East-facing profile near treeline. Strong snowpack. Facets at March 5 crust were rounded. Facets buried in late February were 1-Finger hard and unreactive. March 17, 2022.
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- North-facing shallow spot in alpine location at 11,800′. Buried rock below test to try to replicate a potential trigger point. ECTX. Surrounding snowpack well over 350cm.
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- The right side of the image you can see small loose avalanches from rocky terrain features and on the left side of the image you can see one of the small, thin slab avalanches that ran today in the new storm snow.
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- Some of the numerous small loose avalanches in the recent snowfall. Most of the loose avalanches initiated from rocky terrain features.
