Observations

Date of Observation: 03/29/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Roadside hand pits in the lower Slate and Mt. CB area, 7 a.m.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Snowpack: Cloud cover and snow last night made for a worse refreeze than any of the previous nights. In some locations, there was a soft, thin crust with unsupportive wet snow below. Where that setup exists, it felt like a ski turn or snowmobile cut could get a large, gouging wet loose avalanche going. In other locations, there were a few stronger ice lenses near the surface that were still unsupportive to boot pen, but added enough strength to the upper snowpack to prevent gouging. Variability seemed to come from aspect (better refreeze on more easterly slopes that went into the shade yesterday afternoon) or maybe elevation.

5520

Date of Observation: 03/28/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch. Obs come from the Northwest and Southeast zones.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous loose avalanches from the past few days on east and west aspects. I did not observe anything new today between 11am and 430pm. I spotted a small wet slab that likely ran on Sunday 3/27 and a couple loose avalanches on NW slopes of Emmons at 12,000 feet.
Weather: Increasing cloud cover throughout the day and slight increase in winds. Warm temperatures that felt a small amount cooler than the day before.
Snowpack: I was looking to track meltwater depth on northerly slopes. On northeast and northwest slopes around 11,500 feet, I found that meltwater had formed an ice lens above the February facet layer and a small amount of water was oozing through the lens into the mostly dry facet layer. On a drifted east slope at 11,900 feet, I found that meltwater had moved through a very dense 1-meter thick slab past the February weak layer and was pooling in denser snow below Feb facets. On a due north slope at 9500 feet, the meltwater had formed an ice lense above the February facets with liquid water present along the ice lens and weak, dry facets below; on an adjacent northeast portion of this feature the Feb facet layer was wet. See profiles for more details. Low elevation sunny terrain was close to an unsupportive, mushy mess in the later afternoon. I produced a few moderately-sized rolling collapses in the valley bottom around 430.

Photos:

5518

Date of Observation: 03/28/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Mt. CB

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Spotted a handful of D1.5 to D2 wet loose avalanches on W and NW aspects near and below treeline that ran sometime after I glassed the slopes at 4 p.m. yesterday
Weather: Few clouds, light winds, warm.
Snowpack: Boot penetration was to the ground through wet snow at noon.

5517

Date of Observation: 03/28/2022
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Townsite

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A good number of wet, loose slides were running as the snowpack is rotting out though this should halt with the weather change as the clouds are moving in.
Weather: Yesterday was the third day in a row of 50ºF weather, all record highs for the date, with yesterday’s 58F the warmest as the snowpack has dropped rapidly to the lowest since the beginning of the month at 51″ on the ground now, about 7″ below average for this date. The low overnight 23F and currently 24F as it has become mostly cloudy.
Snowpack:

Photos:

5516

Date of Observation: 03/27/2022
Name: Dominic Gawel

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Skin out from gothic.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Loose wet on lookers left, wet slab on lookers right around the crackin’s arm.

Photos:

5514

Date of Observation: 03/27/2022

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Road

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Gothics SE side ran down to valley floor. Smaller releases on the E side proper

Photos:

5513

Date of Observation: 03/27/2022
Name: daniel kreykes

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Bowl/gully above first Cement dispersed sites

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Largish loose wet slide off E aspect cliffs that ran 3/26. Entrained enough snow to deposit snow up to 7′ deep and 90′ wide in the gully bottom.
Weather: Hot. E/SE was sketchy and trapdoor by 10am. S by 1045am

Photos:

5512

Date of Observation: 03/27/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Rode out towards West Brush Creek this morning. Turned around because the sled was trenching to the ground in bottomless wet snow. Midday lap on the west side of Snodgrass, and PM bino tour from CBMR.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Continued wet loose activity at all elevations, mostly D1 to D1.5 in size, most abundantly on E/NE aspects. Notable larger slides include: A D2 wet loose that we watched run at 11:20 out of Climax Chutes. Another D2 wet loose off of Gibson Ridge. A gouging wet loose out of the Spoon on Gothic that probably grew to D2 in size. A wet loose that propagated as a relatively narrow wet slab further downslope in Redwell Basin (E, BTL) and was about D2 in size.
Weather: Warm, periods of thin scattered clouds, light winds.
Snowpack: 2″ to 6″ refreeze this morning (depending on elevation and tree cover) was supportive to boots and skis but was generally unsupportive to snowmobiles. We found an isothermal and fully wet snowpack on flat, south, and west facing terrain below treeline. At 11:30 a.m., the crust was starting to thaw and become unsupportive on south aspects, natural activity was already underway by then on east aspects, and west aspects had good corn skiing. One pit on a west aspect of Snodgrass showed a 16″ cohesive wet slab over wet facets. There was a lot of free water pooling on a thin crust just above the dry spell facets, which were also wet but not flooded.

Photos:

5511

Date of Observation: 03/27/2022
Name: Cosmo Langsfeld

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Cement creek road, ~1/2 mile past winter trailhead

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Wet slide on road below the ranch. Came off of east ish facing cliffs above the road. Slid on or gouged to the ground.
Weather: 50 degrees in the shade at 3pm

Photos:

5510

Date of Observation: 03/26/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: 4 p.m. bino tour from top of CBMR

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Good vantage of lots of terrain. Easterly aspects were most active today, with a dozen or so previously undocumented wet loose avalanches, mostly D1 starting from steep rocky terrain features. The largest and most notable was a D2 below Gibson Ridge (E, BTL). There was also one avalanche that broke as a narrow slab above Copper Creek, probably a wet slab (D1.5, SE ATL)

Photos:

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