Observations

Date of Observation: 01/01/2022

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: SW slopes from Wash Gulch

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: only saw reported obs on skooks
Weather: cold clear calm, not snowing…weird.
Snowpack: been skiing SW ATL / BTL wo signs of instability, wanted to look for deep layers and crust
Pit SW @11k
HS 150cm
CT12 130cm up from ground
CT18 120cm
CT30 40cm above stout 10cm crust
ECTN
ECT31 deep tap after removing 50cm Q1 SP on small grained .5mm facets

Photos:

5180

Date of Observation: 01/01/2022
Name: Jeff Smith

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate River Road

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches:Impressive avalanche ran beyond full track off of Schuykill Ridge burying the river and running uphill across the valley burying the Slate River road and taking down trees uphill.

Photos:

5179

Date of Observation: 01/01/2022
Name: jeffrey banks

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Red Mountain

Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: cold & impressive Ridgetop NE winds on the 2 Southern most Peaks of Whetstone
Snowpack: No signs of instability on mellow N & NE terrain.

Wind waves on the snow surface and massive plumes tailing S/SW off of Whetstone’s southerly peaks.

5178

Date of Observation: 01/01/2022
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic

Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: And you may finally get a rest from my sunrise weather notes as the storm system seems to be moving on. Light but steady snow all day Saturday until stopping around 8 p.m. with just scattered, light snow overnight. High temp. ws up to 23F and the morning low was 8F with current 10F. There was 10″ new snow and water content of 0.71″. Snowpack reached 68″ and now is at 64″ deep. A light wind with occasional gusting and now a light W wind. I may get visibility today for the first time in 9 days other than a couple hours a week ago. Currently overcast but that beats obscured. Now time to dig out. billy

5177

Date of Observation: 12/31/2021
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Townsite

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: I was outside moving snow (but then, aren’t we all) at 8:50 and heard a noise up on Gothic and then saw- not the slide as there is no visibility- but the powder cloud coming out of the cirque just north of here. This path runs pretty large though i have no idea how it did and will not until it clears.

I ducked down under the solar panels not because i was afraid, but because, um, a, i dropped my contact lens, yes, that is why. Imagine how silly i felt when i remembered- i don’t wear contacts!?! Anyway, safe to say it’s a war out there.

For your amusement, i have attached the dumbest photo ever- a power cloud during a storm when there is little visibility anyway. Sorry. Keeps me laughing. billy
Weather: Snow continues heavy with 3″ new in the past 2 hours.
Snowpack:

Photos:

5176

Date of Observation: 12/31/2021
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Traveled mostly on easterly aspects below 10,000 ft. Two short tours, one near Brush Creek TH and one near Red Mountain.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Poor visibility and I did not travel near avalanche terrain.
Weather: Moderate snowfall most of the day. Snowfall rates increased to heavy by mid-afternoon. Moderate gusts in exposed locations.
Snowpack: Targeted persistent slab sensitivity in the shallow part of our forecast area. I did not experience any signs of instability under foot (collapses or cracking). Stability tests produced a mix of propagating and non-propagating results below slabs 3 to 5 feet thick. The 12/6 layer (only on northerly aspects here) looks like garbage still (3-4mm in size, fist hard),with very little signs of strengthening. It consistently showed propagating results in ECTs and PSTs. The 12/23 layer (on all aspects that we covered, SE, E, NE, and N) showed a mix of propagating and non-propagating results. This layer looks like it is rounding, hardening, and will heal fairly quickly once the loading ends. See photos and profiles for details.

Photos:

5175

Date of Observation: 12/31/2021
Name: Billy Barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic townsite

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: Thankfully there was no wind yesterday or overnight. A steady, moderate to heavy snowfall with 21″ new, 17″ of which came from sunset to what passes as sunrise. Total water content was 1.27″ which comes to a very light 6% water- easily the driest snowfall of the winter. The snowpack is at winter’s deepest of 65½”. Currently obscured and snowing moderately with no temperature movement from a high of 19F to the current and low of 18F. Wind is 1-2 SW. I heard a slide run while outside in the hour it took to get around and clear everything. Looks like i will not ski the peak of Gothic today. It was that or a cup of tea- you do the math. billy

5174

Date of Observation: 12/30/2021
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Standard skin track up and traversed above 1st and 2nd bowls on the north side. Descended my up-track down to the trailhead.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: I inspected several previously reported avalanches on northerly slopes from 12/27 (likely ran on 12/24) and found around 2 feet of low-density snow accumulated on bed surfaces. I purposely traveled above 1st and 2nd bowls to look at slopes that avalanched during 12/9-10 cycle to find out if these slopes avalanched again, and, to my surprise, these slopes appeared to be holding all of the storm snow since 12/23.
Weather: Overcast skies with continuous light snowfall from 11am-4pm. Around 4pm snowfall rates increased. Winds were generally very light between 9,600 – 11,100 feet. Trees at the summit of Snodgrass were holding lots of snow.
Snowpack: No signs of instability during the tour, I traveled off the beaten track in several areas on sunny and shady slopes. I dug a profile on a southeasterly slope at 10,400 feet and found a sensitive storm snow interface around a foot below the surface but did not experience any cracking underfoot. A second interface, in the middle of the snowpack, was softer than layers above and below but did not produce propagating results. Snow depths on northeast through east through southeast slopes ranged from 130cm to 180cm.

Photos:

5173

Date of Observation: 12/30/2021
Name: jeff banks

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: SW Slopes BTL

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: S1 limited Visibility
Winds increasing to Moderate at NTL ridgetop. Some massive drifts 2m & blown out slopes with only ~50cm vs 130cm avg depth
Snowpack: No signs of instability on slopes lacking the early season facet layer.

Very Supportive midpack with ~4-5″ of low density snow overnight.

Easy trail breaking with fast skiing on top of the big storm slab.

5172

Date of Observation: 12/30/2021
Name: Billy Barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Townsite

 

Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Obscured, of course, but only light wind yesterday afternoon along with light snow as well. But the wind picked up late in the day and continued through the night. The 24 hour snow totals were 7″ new (5″ overnight) and 0.59″ of water, the heaviest snowfall coming in the last hour. Currently light snow and steady wind with gusts in the 30’s. The snowpack is up to 49″. Very little temperature movement again as the range has held between 13 and 19F in the past 24 hours. Again substantial snow movement from the wind though the snowpack (down here) is setting up fast. billy

5171