Stoke is High

CB Avalanche CenterCBAC Observations

Date of Observation: 01/09/2022
Name: Andrew Butterfield

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: SE end of the NW zone. Started at 9400′ and climbed to 11500′ on S, SW and SE aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A couple small loose wet tumblers below a few rock and cliff bands. Looked to be just the recent snow shedding off with solar warming. Nothing else to note.
Weather: Pleasant and sunny. No wind until I hit the ridge and wind on the ridge was light (5-10ish mph tops).
Snowpack: HS was hovering around 110 cm leaving the sled and tapered up to 140+ cm closer to the ridge. I didn’t pull my probe out to find exact snow depths near the top of the ridge. New snow depth varied from around 10 cm down low to 15+ cm up higher. Trail breaking was incredibly easy all the way up, supportive to skis and boot. Looked to be small drifts on more easterly aspects, in the usual cross-loaded terrain, and ski pen was marginally deeper on aspects that had an E tinge, but nothing substantial. The sun/ warm temps have already worked on the snowpack on the sunnies and continued to do so today. No signs of instability on anywhere I traveled in my tour. Looking across the valley, true westerly aspects ATL were pretty stripped and the cross-loaded gullies held the majority of snow on W facing terrain.

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