Date of Observation: 02/24/2022
Name: Drew Holbrook
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Double Top
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: See photo. Don’t recall seeing this before.
Weather:
Snowpack:
Photos:
5398
Date of Observation: 02/24/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: From CBMR, I had brief visibility this afternoon of some alpine terrain around Copper Creek, Deer Creek, and Gothic Peak. Most of the peaks remained socked in. Could also see some terrain around Peanut Lake Road, Washington Gulch, etc.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Widespread D1 to D2 cycle BTL on NE to E aspects. Every bowl on the east side of Gothic Peak ran (SE and E aspects). I could see a handful of slides on west aspects BTL out by Brush Creek. Good views of south and southwest facing terrain above Copper and Deer Creek and that terrain didn’t produce naturals (combination of thicker crusts and windward aspects).
Weather: Periods of steady transport at the summit of Mt. CB. Clouds started clearing in the donut hole.
Photos:
5396
Date of Observation: 02/24/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: CB Nordic Hill. NE aspect
Observed avalanche activity: No
Snowpack: The “2022 total BS drought sandbox layer” continues to show unusual behavior. On the Nordic Hill, we systematically trafficked and sluffed that layer before the storm, and got numerous shooting cracks, collapses, and mini slabs when we worked it Tuesday afternoon halfway through the storm. This morning, we got repeat collapses in some areas that had already been worked. Cracks were shooting along old ski tracks and doing some wild things I haven’t seen on that slope before. This is the worst mid-winter near surface facet layer that I can recall in my career, based on what I’ve seen the last few days. The slabs aren’t extraordinary, but the weak layer is. I think Evan’s ob from Tuesday of a quarter mile wide avalanche under a 12” soft slab really captures the challenging nature of this layer.
Photos:
5394
Date of Observation: 02/23/2022
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Walrod Gulch out Cement Creek.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Two natural avalanches occurred while a person was walking dog(s) out Walrod Gulch in Cement Creek. Large in size; depositing a dangerous amount of snow onto the summer road up Walrod Gulch near the Caves Connector trail. See photos. This is likely the same avalanche reported in this observation from earlier today – https://cbavalanchecenter.org/walrod-2/
Weather:
Snowpack:
Photos:
5393
Date of Observation: 02/23/2022
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch TH to Elkton area and lap near Coneys.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous avalanches in upper Washington Gulch. Many slopes greater than 35 degrees on the north half of the compass ran naturally. Only observed 2 D2 size avalanches, but the terrain I was able to see were all relatively short hills. I remotely triggered a drifted southeast slope above Elkton from a couple hundred feet away while snowmobiling. Crowns ranged from 30cm to 80cm. The largest avalanche was the east bowl off Elkton Knob.
Weather: Cloudy skies with generally light SW winds (some moderate gusting). From 1 pm to 330 pm snowfall rates increased dramatically around S2 with brief periods up to S5.
Snowpack: At 300pm in Elkton, I measured 30 inches of storm snow with 2.4 inches snow water equivalent. Ski pen was around 12 inches and boot pen was nearly full storm depth. While traveling around I regularly produced moderate collapses and cracking with a few of the rumbling variety. On drifted features, it often took a slight bounce to produce the collapse; the stiffer the snow the further cracks and whumping traveled. We experienced even a few localized collapses in forested terrain near Coneys. The only slopes in this area that did not collapse and shoot cracks were south and southwest around 11k in elevation.
East and southeast slopes in this area had thin, soft melt/freeze crusts capping the facets below. The remotely-triggered avalanche from the drifted southeast slope had a 4cm melt/freeze crust that collapsed. Stability tests on east and southeast features produced easy and moderate propagating results.
The couple of south and southwest features I traveled across around 11,000 feet did not show signs of instability. Some cracking that ran up to a ski length, but it only broke down about 12 inches into the top of the storm snow. The south and southwest features I looked at had strong melt/forms to the ground beneath the new snowfall. Stability tests did not produce results on the interface between the old crust and the recent snow.
Photos:
5391
Date of Observation: 02/23/2022
Name: Evan Ross
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Kebler Pass
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Remotely triggered 1 small slab avalanche on a west-facing slope at 11,400ft. Widespread natural avalanche activity that has been well summed up in other observations.
Photos:
5390
Date of Observation: 02/23/2022
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Pavement obs from HWY 135
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous natural avalanches near and below treeline on east and northeast slopes. Many D1’s and a couple of D2’s on longer slopes or drifted terrain features. Never got a view of alpine terrain or the northern end of Whetstone.
Weather: A brief clearing gave me views of the southern end of Whetstone near and below treeline.
Photos:
5389
Date of Observation: 02/23/2022
Name: Billy Rankin
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Broke trail out Wash gulch to Coney’s, up standard skin track, across the top and we skied down the far left side of second bowl and low exit just above creek.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Half dozen or so small naturals from the trailhead on the classic Meridian Lake indicator slopes. All NE, BTL, 35 degrees. SS-N-R1-D1.5-I (2/22) Average 30cm deep, 50- 600’ wide, ran 100-300’. The classic corniced ridge top above long lake ran and looked to be full storm depth 600′ wide, ran several hundred feet.
One remotely triggered small avalanche on the first section of the skin track on small isolated steep gully feature (see photo). Remote triggered convex bowl from 50 feet away, 60cm‘s deep up to 80cm, 250’ feet wide ran maybe 200 feet downhill into the trees. (see photo)
We traverse across the top of coneys first and second bowl stomping on cornice but was unable to trigger anything else, though it may have run overnight or yesterday?
Weather: OVC, winds southerly moving a lot of snow, light snow in the am picked up in the pm and periods of S2 by 14:00.
Snowpack: Tons of collapsing all day produced shooting cracks up to 50 feet or more at times
Quick test pit dug just before ridge top HS: 180cm 60cm of storm snow sitting on 1mm facets. CTM 11 Sudden collapse on the facets. Storm snow showing right side up 4F at the bottom to F on top.
Photos:
5388
Date of Observation: 02/23/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Kebler Pass Road, town, and Pitchfork neighborhood
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Coding in a few more fresh slab avalanches that ran today on small slopes near town. D1 to D1.5
Photos:
5384
Date of Observation: 02/23/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Mount Axtell ridgeline and west facing glades to 12,000 ft.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A handful of naturals that ran last night and this morning on Axtell, some D2s in 2nd Bowl and what looks like a D3 where the Pencil ran wall to wall and propagated into the lower part of Wang Chung. We remotely triggered at least one D2.5 in 2nd Bowl, and came across another very fresh slide that we either remotely triggered from very far away or it ran naturally minutes before we got there. There were also a bunch of natural slides above Coal Creek and one above Kebler Pass road, D1 to D1.5 in size. Details in the avalanche tabs.
Weather: Moderate snowfall this morning changed to light snowfall and light winds midday. A pulse came through around 3 p.m. that brought an hour of heavy snowfall rates and notable blowing snow off of the trees.
Snowpack: Widespread collapsing. We even got regular localized collapses in tight trees, which was a noticeable difference from yesterday. It seems that the slopes that were heavily blasted by northerly winds prior to the storm are bonding better than everywhere else. I’m hypothesizing that based on crown line locations and the little bit of feedback I was able to get underfoot in the wind-crusted terrain.
Photos:
5383
