Observations

Date of Observation: 02/11/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: East Beckwith. Traveled to 11,600 ft on SE, E, and NE aspects, with the focus of our observations at or just below treeline.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered a small loose dry avalanche on a northeast aspect that ran about 800 ft. The sluff did not entrain as much snow as I’ve observed earlier this week because much of the track was stiffened by recent winds.
Weather: Mostly clear, light winds where we traveled. Could see a few periods of blowing snow off of the Anthracite Range this afternoon, more of the sublimating type.
Snowpack: Recent winds have done a good job of reducing the distribution of loose snow avalanches here. Most terrain that we traveled on was textured from the wind enough to keep the faceted snow from sluffing unless you were on a very steep slope (mid 40’s).
We encountered a handful of hard drifted slabs up to 6″ thick mostly near treeline and a few below treeline. On east facing terrain NTL, they produced a few alarming collapses and shooting cracks up to 20 feet wide. On southeast facing terrain, I couldn’t produce any signs of instability with drifts, but we skirted around them nevertheless. While these drifts were generally easy to identify and avoid, there was one terrain feature that appeared to collapse on an older generation drift and surface clues weren’t as helpful. We turned away from a steeper terrain feature that we had planned to climb due to our uneasiness with the problem after that.

Photos:

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Date of Observation: 02/11/2022
Name: Josh Jones

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Double Top south ridge to summit, down waterfall creek.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few small dry loose slides observed above the ranch. NW 10000′ see photo
Weather: 28 Degrees
0/8 Skycover
NW winds were hounding on me all day
Snowpack: Crusty faceted snow on the south ridge, almost corn in spots with todays sun.

Northeast facing terrain down waterfall creek: ATL/NTL wind slab mixed with some recycled powder. BTL soft facets.

Photos:

5333

Date of Observation: 02/10/2022
Name: Chris Martin

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Lindley hut to friends hut, traveled Copper Creek from Lindley hut to Pearl Pass.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: None
Weather: 2/10 – Windy
Snowpack: Observation from 2/10: 5-15 cm wind slab formation on NTL, N facing slopes observed in Copper Creek area (traveling lindley hut to friends hut).
Observed many Cracks and Collapses in newly formed wind slabs, found mostly in NTL, N facing terrain where terrain could create extra sensitive wind catches. Minimal formation observed in ATL Terrain. Tested a few smaller slopes, Hard slabs were not releasing on 30-35* slopes

Photos:

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Date of Observation: 02/11/2022

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Through cement plant up a well established track. Lots of skiing done here, tracks all through the woods and gullies. coming out of the woods going up the standard ridge pointing north. About 2/3 up on the ridge leading to the flatter part we were right on the rounded edge on a 20 ish degree slope. If you would have bet me will it slide here I would have bet $100 with 99.999% certainty that this would never go. I would have lost that bet. 27 years in the backcountry, go figure.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: We heard a whoomp, I looked thinking it would just settle as it usually does, but in a moment it started moving and both skiers fell. Due to low angle movement was very slow, both skiers got held up in trees just 25 feet lower. In all a minor event, one lost pole no injuries, but a definite wake up call. The crown was all of 10″ tall tapering to 4″ to the north west. The whoomp propagated to the south around the edge of the ridge and set off another 45ft wide sluff of blocks 8 inches thick that ran down about 500 ft from the crown. It propagated to the top of the ridge about 100ft above the trigger.
Weather: Sunny, no wind, not too warm, but not too cold.
Snowpack: no new snow in weeks, an aging snow pack.

Photos:

5331

Date of Observation: 02/10/2022

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Peeler

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered hard slab in steep 40-45 degree N facing ”protected” and gladed terrain. BTL. ~10,700’. Hard slab was max 8” thick and fairly isolated to terrain feature but entrained a TON of loose facets on a slick surface resulting in impressive momentum gain and running to valley floor; ~800’.

Weather: Partly cloudy skies, moderate temp with cool moderate NW wind.

Snowpack: Highly variable…

Photos:

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Date of Observation: 02/10/2022
Name: Ben Ammon Kyle Juszczyk

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Scarp Ridge, Peeler, Schuykill

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Peeler-ENE ATL D1 Loose Dry avalanches. The larger of the two triggered multiple 4-6″ windlsabs as it ran.
Schuykill- D1.5 Loose Dry Avalanches, 10″ F hard FC at the surface, we found no slab.

Snowpack: Steep South aspects were supportive and warm before clouds and wind arrived mid-day.
No signs of instability noted on N-facing ATL terrain off Scarp Ridge.

Photos:

5329

Date of Observation: 02/10/2022

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: 10,200-11,800 feet east-facing “secret chute.”

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:

Weather: Partly sunny with thin, high clouds. Very light WNW breeze at the ridgetop.

Snowpack: About 2/3 of the way up (11,400ft), HS was 130cm.

Photos:

5328

Date of Observation: 02/09/2022
Name: Steve Banks

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Poverty Gulch

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Saw the cutest little windslab that popped out recently on a little roller in micro terrain. NTL elevation but more characteristic of ATL.

Weather: I felt the sweet sweet tickle of snowflakes dancing on my face. Then it stopped. Scattered clouds became overcast by 2 pm. Intermittent moderate winds from the NW causing some drifting near and above treeline.

Snowpack: Yikes. Facet factory. In areas that had previously slid this season we found full depth (70-80 cms) of large grained facets. Other areas with a deeper snowpack had 10-15 cms of large grained facets over a very stiff (P) midpack. In many areas the facets were capped by a stiff wind board, up to 8 cms thick. Despite all this, the skiing was pretty alright.

Photos:

5327

Date of Observation: 02/09/2022
Name: jeff banks

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Axtell

Observed avalanche activity: No

Weather: increasing winds > 10,800 to Moderate to Strong for the afternoon

Snowpack: ~10mx15m fracture, whumpf & collapse of Diamond shaped windslab
~2-4 inches deep bordered by corn snow all around, easy to identify as isolated pocket & gauge depth
10,850, #SE, ~33*

a few minutes skinning higher up as we reached the tree limit & the fresh wind slabs were:
gaining in thickness ~10 and deeper
continuous, linking up are bigger swaths of terrain & unavoidable
so bravely ran away.

Photos:

5326

Date of Observation: 02/09/2022
Name: Jack Caprio

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Whetstone Claw. North- east- southeast aspects up to 11,700 feet.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Nope!

Weather: Scattered to broken cloud cover. Moderate NW winds with strong gusts.

Snowpack: Northeast facing terrain near treeline was variable and wind affected. Every now and then you’d get a nice turn in soft, faceted snow whereas your next turn would be punchy wind affected snow. Wind slabs in this terrain were 2-3 inches thick, and discontinuous due to trees and rocks. No concerns of sluffing in the near treeline elevation band. As we descended below treeline into protected terrain the ski quality improved and sluffing concern increased.

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