Observations

Date of Observation: 03/01/2022

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Carbon via Splain’s Gulch. 9,200-12,000 ft. NW & NE aspects. Traveled on slopes at or below 30 degrees.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few very small snowcat, skier and snow machine-triggered pockets along the road cut in Splain’s.
Weather: Calm, clear and balmy!
Snowpack: Lots of collapsing, including a few that felt more like small earthquakes. Most of the activity was in or around forested terrain, but there was one big one on an open, more alpine slope (25 degree) near treeline that sent cracks rocketing out toward the steeper terrain to the west of me. Widespread surface hoar on open slopes to about 10,600 feet. Solar aspects were super mushy later in the day. Had to wax my skins four times and scrape my bases three times. I despise gloppy snow! Snow quality on north aspects was fabulous. Skating on the groomed roads was all-time!

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Date of Observation: 02/28/2022
Name: Tim Mahan

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Keebler pass TH, through the Y, through lily lake, through splains.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: 1x SS-AM-D2-U-250’x300’ approx. West facing BTL slope adjacent to Ohio/kebler pass Y.
Weather: CLR, 30-40f
Snowpack: N/O

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Date of Observation: 02/28/2022
Name: Miles Morris

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Climb red Lady skin decend red Lady bowl 2x
First decent was skiers left of red Lady, slide released well after I was off the slope.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: R1 D1 18″ 100 yards wide, 500ft vertical
Weather: Clear
Snowpack:

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Date of Observation: 02/28/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Standard Snodgrass up-track and descended 3rd bowl area.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Lots of natural activity from the cycle last week. Most ran early in the storm with crowns well filled in and a few that ran towards the end. Many slopes greater than 35 degrees ran naturally, but not all start zones had evidence of recent avalanche activity. I suspect some features endured the loading event due to previous skier traffic. I skier-triggered a tiny loose avalanche on a steep, below treeline feature on southeast aspect at 1pm. Numerous small wet loose avalanches were visible on the east side of Gothic Mountains. They all began from rocky features; I’m uncertain if they occurred today or yesterday.
Weather: Clear skies and warm temperatures. Calm winds below treeline.
Snowpack: Southerly slopes soften before noon and I was able to produce a small wet loose avalanche at 1 pm. The top few inches were wet with couple inches of moist snow before the old crust.
On northerly terrain, I experienced a few moderately-sized collapses in low angle meadows. The slab resting above the February near surface facets was around 18″ thick and up to 1 finger hard. Two test profiles produced moderate propagating test results (ECTP 14,16). The weak layer is about 6 inches thick of fist hard 2mm facets. Signs of instability were less common than expected, but many lower angled slopes I traveled across appeared to have shattered during the loading event so that may have reduced the signs of instability. Surfaces hoar was present on N and NE slopes around 3-5mm in size.

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Date of Observation: 02/28/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Baxter Basin area. Traveled on various aspects to 11,500 ft.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A pair of snowmobilers riding tandem on one sled remotely triggered a large persistent slab on an east aspect near treeline. The associated crack wrapped about 900 feet around the terrain feature, but the slab only released about 200 feet wide. The slab was 70 cm thick, mostly F to 4F with about 8 cm of 1F near the bottom in the dust layer. The weak layer was…. you guessed it…the mid-February dry spell layer: 1 to 1.5 mm facets, fist+ hard. The snowmobilers triggered the slide after several passes adjacent to the slope and were not in harm’s way when it released.
We also intentionally triggered a couple of small slabs of similar thickness below treeline on small steep test features. A handful of D1 wet loose slides ran either today or yesterday at all elevations on E to SE to SW aspects.
Weather: Warm.
Snowpack: Obvious signs of instability were hit or miss without a particular rhyme or reason. We noted one rumbling collapse on an easterly aspect around 10,500 ft that shot cracks across some small supported rollovers without producing any slides. I noted a handful of other shooting cracks while riding around on lower angle terrain further down valley near Schuykill Ridge, and some of the steep rollovers that we tested produced cracking while more often they did not. Lots of large rollerballs on steep southerly aspects, surfaces on the sunbaked aspects were getting warm and wet.

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Date of Observation: 02/28/2022

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Coney’s, ENE aspect (9,400-10,800ft). Climbed into the open terrain just north of the standard skin track.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Fresh-looking D1 on skiers left side of main bowl. 40(ish)cm crown. 20 feet wide, and ran 100 feet into the only trees on the slope. May have been remotely triggered from a skier on the knob just to the north. Cracks ran 200 feet to the south along the ridge.
Weather: No wind. Blue sky. Scorching sun!
Snowpack: Very large, widespread surface hoar in the morning that had vanished by noon. New snow was dense and creamy in the main bowl. Slopes tilted toward the sun were rapidly warming by late morning, getting very wet and sticky. Still lots of violent collapses lower on the slope, in lower-angle forested terrain. Only one sizable collapse (on second ascent) in steeper terrain on the ridge feature just south of the main bowl.

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Date of Observation: 02/27/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Near Irwin Townsite

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Shared to CBAC on social media. Small skier triggered persistent slab in a small opening in west facing trees

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Date of Observation: 02/27/2022

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Snowmobiled out W Brush. Ascended early ridge which seperates Deer Creek and W Brush Creek. Started at around 9600′ and topped out at roughly 10500′. Played a little mini golf.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: No surprise, lots of activity everywhere at virtually all aspects and elevations, both old and new. We assume our snowmobiles remote-triggered a small wind-loaded pocket (E), around 75 yards adjacent to an open hillcrest (picture attached). Lot’s of debris visible on some Westerlies but East seemed to be the bigger instigator (no surprise with the winds). Didn’t get eyes on many N aspects. Topped out on a SE/ E facing slope which looked to have ripped mid-cycle.
Weather: Sunny and very light winds BTL. Applied the whitey sauce a couple times but still proved to be insufficient. Wasn’t extremely warm but the solar was certainly in play. Felt like early spring for sure.
Snowpack: Not nearly as much new snow as some of the favored areas, at least at the lower elevations. However, it was certainly noisy whilst breaking in the skinner, so we kept it mellow and stayed below 30ish degrees all day. Stomped on a couple suspect slopes and had some big collapses, but we weren’t on anything steep enough to move any kind of slap. Overall, snow on S and SE felt pretty good. Worth noting: there were a couple big debris piles near valley floor on steeper E aspects a little further up the valley… Around 11am, the new snow was beginning to get heavy on the sunnies and continued to get baked throughout the day. One would assume a varying sun crust should be expected at this aspect and elevation tomorrow.

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Date of Observation: 02/27/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Upper Cement Creek

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Documenting slab activity from the cycle

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Date of Observation: 02/27/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Snowmobiled on various aspects up Cement Creek to Double Top to Tilton Pass at 12,000 ft.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: I remotely triggered a 16″ persistent slab on a west aspect near treeline from over a hundred yards away. Also remotely triggered a handful of very small pockets by creek beds. Observed one fresh cornice fall that produced a D1.5 avalanche. A couple of small loose wet slides ran this afternoon on steep south NTL.
Documented extensive D1 to D2 avalanche activity in the Southeast Mountains from the cycle, organized into separate obs by location. The most widespread activity was below treeline on W to N to E aspects with a lot of activity NTL on the same aspects. A couple of persistent slabs might have run today. Above treeline had the fewest slides, which makes sense because the faceted snow surfaces in the alpine in this area were heavily worked by winds prior to the storm, except for Cement Mtn. Above treeline had a handful of slides that failed on SE and S aspects as well.
Weather: Clear and calm. Cold start, mild day.
Snowpack: This area got the least amount of snow from the storm and the persistent slab problem is smaller and more manageable than what I’ve found in the Northwest Mountains. Slabs average about a foot thick: less than 10″ in Lower Cement, and up to 18″ near the headwaters, generally fist hard below treeline and up to 4F or 1F in driftier areas at higher elevations. The 2022 BS sandbox layer is as weak as ever here in sheltered terrain: 2-3 mm and fist hard. However, signs of instability are waning on northerly terrain below treeline because the slab is very soft and faceting over a soft weak layer. The bullseye for widespread shooting cracks was on east and west aspects where there is a thin crust helping drive propagation. I got moderate propagating results on this structure (ECTP11). Once I climbed into the most wind-affected terrain, signs of instability went away. The slabs are bonding well to pencil and knife hard wind blasted surfaces, with no results in tests or slope cuts.

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