Observations

Date of Observation: 02/22/2023
Name: Eric Murrow Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Standard Schuylkill Ridge up track from OBJ. 9,000ft to 10,500ft. Primarily NE-E

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered a small 12″ storm slab on a NE facing slope below treeline. Skier triggered a couple of small wind slabs on SE and NE near treeline.

Weather: Started out with a blizzard. Then it got kind of nice for an hour. Then the blowing snow became intense and exfoliating as the sun temporarily poked through to say hi. Roller Coaster

Snowpack: New snow was in the 10 to 12″ range. Shortly after the morning blizzard the top couple of inches was reactive as a storm slab and produced some very small natural avalanches BTL. By the time we got into steep terrain those storm slabs had already become less reactive. Nearing ridgeline we started managing and triggering wind slabs. The blowing snow was intense. We triggered another 12″ storm slab on the descent.

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6029

Date of Observation: 02/22/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Afternoon rec tour on Mount Emmons, generally NE aspects to 11,300′

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A pair of natural wind slabs ran today in two of the Climax Chutes, debris ran to the chokes, about 1900′ vert in at least one of them. Couldn’t see the other. Skier triggered a thin storm slab on a steep, sheltered terrain feature, about 6″ thick. Also triggered a sluff that gouged about 18″ deep to the ground through weak facets on a slope that avalanched in January and has since remained shallow and rotting.
Weather: Unpleasant. Significant blowing snow at all elevations, from the southwest where we were. Heavy snowfall around noon fizzled to nil this afternoon. Decreasing temperature trend and some periods of visibility this afternoon after the cold front.
Snowpack: 8″ to 10″ of new snow. There was a mid-storm density change that produced localized cracking in sheltered terrain, and longer shooting cracks in leeward terrain, where drifts were up to 18″ thick where we traveled. There were drifts near ridgeline and near valley bottom.

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6028

Date of Observation: 02/22/2023
Name: Sam Ridley

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: I skied from Snodgrass TH out 317 to the 1 mile shots and did laps there and above the road on the way back between 9am and 1pm. I was primarily on N through NE facing BTL terrain.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: There were variable moderate to strong winds, primarily from the SW. Precipitation intensity generally increased throughout the morning, ranging from none to around an inch per hour. There was significant snow transport BTL in less sheltered areas to north facing terrain.
Snowpack: Wind sheltered areas had 6″+ of new snow, which sloughed easily on steeper test slopes but I did not find cohesive slabs in the trees. More open, wind loaded N to NE facing slopes near the road had 1.5’+ new snow, shooting cracks, and were getting deeper, stiffer, and easier to initiate cracks in throughout the morning.

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6027

Date of Observation: 02/22/2023
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic

Weather: Snow started just before midnight and was steady while light to moderate, with 5½” new and water 0.39″. A steady moderate SW wind overnight. Currently overcast with light snow and 6-10 SW wind gusting to 15 and snow has been drifting. Snowpack is at 61″. Yesterday’s high was a very warm 38F and for today the low is the current 23º. A dense snowfall.

6026

Date of Observation: 02/21/2023
Name: Mark Robbins

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Skied thanksgiving bowl

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Guessing cornice fall on scarps ridge near redwell. See crappy iPhone photo. No instabilities noted while skiing.

Weather: Real warm and sunny. Moderate winds at ridge line doing a good job of transporting snow into the skooks shots. Looked like strong winds up high with snow plumes on the higher peaks

Snowpack:

Photos:

6025

Date of Observation: 02/21/2023
Name: Zach Guy

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

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A handful of D1-1.5 wind slabs from the past 24 to 36 hours from above treeline terrain on Axtell, Gothic, and Ruby Range.
Weather: Partly cloudy. Generally light wind drifting with a few periods of moderate transport on some terrain. 2″ to 3″ of new snow in the past 24 hours on Mt. CB.
Snowpack: Near treeline slopes with moderate-sized fetches had fresh drifting overnight, 4″ to 16″ thick, 4F hard, reactive to ski cuts.

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6023

Date of Observation: 02/20/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Mt Emmons E-S-SW. 9,400-11,900ft.

Avalanches: Recent large avalanche in Red Coon Bowl. Best Guess is that it ran on Sunday or early Monday. East aspect 11,800ft. Estimated 1.5 feet deep and 400 feet wide. Blurry iPhone photo attached.

Weather: S1 through the AM hours with 1.5 to 2″ of new snow by noon. NTL elevations had continuous blowing snow with moderate to strong winds during the AM hours. Poor visibility. The weather started to improve in the early afternoon. With better visibility snow plumes could be seen on the higher peaks at times.

Snowpack: Targeted a few areas for another look before we go into the next storm. Since January, the upper snowpack has become layered and more complicated. There are several layers of crusts and facets that could lead to persistent slab avalanche behavior during the upcoming loading event. In the areas I checked around 11,200ft, E and SE aspects were the most concerning for the future PSa issues in the upper 40cm of the snowpack. I didn’t look at any south aspects. The crusts in the upper 40cm of the snowpack on a SW aspect were 2 to 5cm thick and notably stronger than those same interfaces on the SE aspects.

I took another look at the recently triggered avalanche in Red Lady Glades. As previously reported, this avalanche released on a thin layer of facets above a crust. More specifically there was a stack of crusts that likely formed between about February 9th to February 13th. Between these 3 crusts, there are layers of small facets of varying weakness. The avalanche failed in this stack of crusts and ran on the lower of the 3 crusts. Currently, on wind-loaded slopes and during the next loading event, these interfaces look capable of producing persistent slab avalanche activity.

Of other note was the continued blowing snow at NTL elevations through mid-day.

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6021

Date of Observation: 02/19/2023

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Toured through calm thick trees on a northeast aspect up to ridgeline where we encountered strong winds from west. Intentionally triggered wind slab by stomping on suspected wind loaded slope.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Wind slab 6-12” thick released above thick trees and wrapped slightly around the corner into main chute.
Weather: Light snow, strong West/Southwest winds at ridge line
Snowpack:

Photos:

6017

Date of Observation: 02/19/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Schuylkill Ridge to 11,400’

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few small wind slabs ran today from wind-loaded alpine terrain features (D1-1.5). I skier triggered a 6” wind slab on a drifted near treeline rollover.
Weather: 2” of new snow fell today. Moderate winds started loading mid-afternoon at higher elevations, then strong winds late afternoon started blowing snow at all elevations. Late afternoon winds were so strong that they appeared to be blowing snow into the atmosphere rather than loading.
Snowpack: Traveled near and below treeline looking for wind slab formation and found a few soft drifts up to 6” that produced cracking. I tested the 2/13 interface on NE and SE aspects and found no failures or concerning-looking structures. We skied steep terrain with only minor sluffing.

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6015

Date of Observation: 02/19/2023
Name: Chris Martin

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: We traveled up the classic Red Lady skin track out for an adventure seeing where mother nature would allow us. Strong winds slowed us up at tree-line on the corniced ridge. We created many options for our group today, including but not limited to any specific descent.

At tree-line, we traversed over to above Little Lady Bowl preparing for our descent. We arrived at the mouth to regroup before traveling the ridgeline, here, a few members of our group felt a callapse. As we traveled along with bowls ridgeline in sub 20 degree terrain we regrouped and noticed a SE pocket remote triggered. We investigated the slide before descending our favorite red lady glades lap becasue is was our plan D and the safest descent for the day.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Little Lady Bowl SE – 38* – 11200′ – D2 – R2

Failed on: 1mm FC above a 2cm crust fragile crust
Down 35cm
Weather: Moderate to strong gusts out of the W
Partly cloudy & OVC
Precip: S-2
Snowpack: Crusts observed at snows surface and below recent storms snow. We observed a 2cm crust below two previous storm/wind transported snow events. The avalanche seemed to step down into two recent events.

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